Friday, May 15th 2026 Mobile DRAM Contract Prices Continue Rising in 2Q26, Pressuring Smartphone Production Press Release by TheLostSwede Friday, 16:10 Discuss 7 Comments Surging mobile DRAM contract prices in 2Q26 continue to place even greater cost pressure on smartphone brands, according to Tren… …
… Consider the fact that DRAM costs now make up a whopping 35 percent of the Bill of Materials BOM of a given entry-level handset, while NAND costs add another 19 percent. Together, these two components now make up a whopping 54 percent of a budget smartphone's total cost. …
… Laptop and smartphone makers have raised prices across the board, and even gaming hardware like Valve's Steam Machine has been forced to raise prices , partly due to pressure from memory and storage costs. …
… Demand at the high end is arguably even more intense, and the cost impact is already showing. DRAM is expected to account for 20–23% of phone BOM costs in mid-tier and premium smartphones in Q2 2026 — up from well below 7% a year earlier for LPDDR5X. …
… As we noted recently, DRAM costs now make up a whopping 35 percent of the Bill of Materials BOM of a given entry-level handset, while NAND costs add another 19 percent. Together, these two components now make up a whopping 54 percent of a budget smartphone's total cost! …
… PC and consumer electronics manufacturers, who are still navigating sluggish post‑pandemic recovery cycles, now face renewed cost pressures that threaten to delay product refreshes. …
… Some call this " ghost RAM ," and it shows how far the squeeze reaches beyond laptops and smartphones. That server-side pressure eventually lands in the consumer aisle. …
… Here, it is demand-side pressure from hyperscalers pushing up memory costs for PCs and smartphones,” Atwal said. …
… Why Apple customers should care Apple has spent months navigating the same memory market pressures described in the lawsuit. Industry analysts have widely attributed rising RAM and storage prices to AI demand, and the company cited higher component costs when it raised prices on some hardware. …
… And as a result, and George flagged this, but as a result, we had to take a lower cost or market reserve against our inventory balance in the quarter. That cost us over 1 point of gross margins in the quarter. …