TrendForce’s latest figures reveal that global smartphone production reached around 284 million units in the first quarter of 2026, marking a 1.7% YoY decline. Despite a sharp rise in memory prices since the second half of 2025, the effect on production was minimal because brands still held inventories of cheaper memory components. Additionally, consumer expectations of higher prices in the future have helped sustain short-term demand, cushioning the impact of rising memory costs on production during the quarter.
Not to mention they’re not really getting better. There’s not really anything a brand new phone can do that a phone a few years old can’t do. There’s no point in getting a new phone cos it’s not really an upgrade anymore