{
  "id": 13438,
  "url": "https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3361769/surging-memory-chip-prices-make-profitable-budget-phones-impossible-analysts-say",
  "title": "Surging memory chip prices make profitable budget phones ‘impossible’, analysts say",
  "summary": "As the memory chip shortage persists, budget smartphone makers are taking the hardest hit, with analysts warning that low-priced handsets have become “impossible to manufacture” profitably. The cost of memory for handsets priced under US$100 is expected to surge 400 per cent in the third quarter of 2026, with the bill of materials for the most common configuration reaching US$70 from just US$14 in the same period last year, according to data from research firm Omdia. Current memory prices have..",
  "authors": "Iris Deng",
  "category": "news",
  "topics": "regulation",
  "orgs": null,
  "regions": null,
  "published_at": "2026-07-24T11:30:05.000Z",
  "fetched_at": "2026-07-25T05:10:48.796Z",
  "source_slug": "x-scmp-tech-hk-cn",
  "source_name": "SCMP Tech (HK/CN)",
  "source_homepage": "https://www.scmp.com/tech",
  "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/13438",
  "original_url": "https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3361769/surging-memory-chip-prices-make-profitable-budget-phones-impossible-analysts-say",
  "evidence_status": "source-only",
  "attribution": "via ethics.ai"
}