TAIPEI, March 23, 2026, 23:45 (UTC+8) 1
Smartphone storage is headed for a 4.8% bump in 2026, despite rising costs for NAND flash memory, TrendForce reported Monday. Brands are cutting back on low-capacity phones and carving out extra space for AI functions that operate directly on the device, the firm said. 2
The pressure’s on memory now, with costs climbing fast across consumer electronics. On March 18, TrendForce noted that surging cloud demand is continuing to drive NAND prices up, following its February call for a steep 55%-60% jump in first-quarter NAND contract prices, quarter over quarter. IDC flagged potential fallout last month: pricier components could translate into a 12.9% drop in global smartphone shipments by 2026, as those higher costs filter down to consumers. 3
Pressure is building at both ends. According to TrendForce, memory makers are upgrading their processes, which is squeezing out production of smaller-capacity NAND and tightening supply for lower-storage chips. On the flip side, some brands are phasing out low-capacity, thinner-margin phones and putting more weight on 128GB and 256GB models. 2
AI is piling on. According to TrendForce, on-device AI features demand anywhere from 40GB to 60GB of cache, essentially storage earmarked for handling local computation. That’s nudging manufacturers to bump up baseline specs: Apple’s iPhone 17 now comes with 256GB standard—twice as much as last year’s starting tier, per the company’s product page. 2
It’s not just handsets feeling the squeeze. “The storage system is going to get pounded,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told attendees at the company’s developer conference last week. Greg Matson, Solidigm’s senior vice president, added that AI systems rolling out later this year might demand 35% more storage than their predecessors. He cautioned that supply could stay “tight” all the way through 2030. 4
Premium brands and mass-market handsets are splitting further apart. According to IDC, Apple and Samsung can handle pricier memory chips more easily than their smaller Android competitors. Last week, Reuters noted that Huawei could have some cushion in China, thanks to its heavier reliance on local suppliers. 5
Analysts aren’t expecting any rapid turnaround. “What we are witnessing is not a temporary squeeze, but a tsunami-like shock originating in the memory supply chain,” IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo said back in February. Gartner’s Ranjit Atwal warned that higher prices would “narrow the range of devices available” and push out replacement cycles. 5
This storage push won’t hit every corner of the market the same way. TrendForce is seeing mid- and low-tier brands drop pricier models, shuffling larger storage sizes into the upgrade column instead of making them standard features. IDC’s Nabila Popal flagged a bigger issue: smartphones under $100 may never pencil out again. Gartner, for its part, projects a 130% spike in combined DRAM and SSD costs by the end of 2026—enough to nudge handset prices up 13%. TrendForce also expects 128GB to slip out of mainstream Android offerings by year-end, replaced by 256GB, though that’s likely to hit premium devices first. 2
