Samsung may sell fewer phones next year due to memory shortage

The global smartphone market has been steadily growing for the past couple of years. However, the recent semiconductor memory chip shortage could drive up mobile phone prices and negatively impact sales next year. And Samsung might not be immune to this.

Market research firm Counterpoint Research has published a new report forecasting global smartphone shipments in 2026. According to that report, mobile phone shipments will go down by 2.1% next year, owing to a shortage of memory chips, which is caused by the meteoric rise in demand for AI services.

The research firm says that Samsung’s global smartphone sales in 2026 will go down by 2.1% compared to this year. In comparison, Apple will take a 2.2% hit. However, these two brands aren’t the ones that will be suffering the most. The company seeing the steepest decline will be Honor, with a 3.4% year-over-year drop.

Recently, we learned that Samsung may increase the prices of its Galaxy A series phones in India by as much as INR 2,000 (~$22). The company could take a similar step in other regions around the world. With increased prices, people may hold off on their potentional purchases, likely affecting the sales of Galaxy phones.