'This is perhaps the biggest challenge the industry has faced since its inception'

The next wave of smartphones and PCs will have less memory and fewer capabilities, yet are likely to cost consumers 14 percent more as AI ambitions eat all available memory supplies, according to researchers at IDC.

IDC said that the worsening memory market has caused its outlook to deteriorate just since December. The analysts are penciling in a decline in the PC market of 11.3 percent in 2026 – about 26 percent worse than they had guessed in December – and a decline in the smartphone market of 12.9 percent, which is more than double the 5.2 percent drop they predicted as a worst-case scenario just two months back.

“This is perhaps the biggest challenge the industry has faced since its inception,” said Nabilia Popal, IDC’s senior research director global consumer devices, during a roundtable video discussion posted Thursday. “This is not just a temporary situation. This is ...