The dream of uber cheap phones for kids and grandparents is effectively dead, thanks to AI
That $100 phone you were going to grab for your kid’s first device, or hand down to grandma, could become a dream in a while. AI’s hunger for memory chips just made the entire budget phone category borderline impossible to build. According to research firm Omdia, memory costs for phones priced under $100 are set to surge 400% in the third quarter of 2026.
- ▪That $100 phone you were going to grab for your kid’s first device, or hand down to grandma, could become a dream in a while.
- ▪AI’s hunger for memory chips just made the entire budget phone category borderline impossible to build.
- ▪According to research firm Omdia, memory costs for phones priced under $100 are set to surge 400% in the third quarter of 2026.
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That $100 phone you were going to grab for your kid’s first device, or hand down to grandma, could become a dream in a while. AI’s hunger for memory chips just made the entire budget phone category borderline impossible to build. So how bad are we actually talking? According to research firm Omdia, memory costs for phones priced under $100 are set to surge 400% in the third quarter of 2026. If that happens, the bill of materials for the most common configuration will jump from just $14 a year ago to roughly $70 (via South China Morning Post). Samsung Omdia’s senior research manager, Jusy Hong, didn’t sugarcoat it. Current memory prices have already blown past what the entire bill of materials for budget smartphones (around $100) looked like a year ago.
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