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Cheap smartphones could soon be a thing of the past, as AI boom snaps up chips — more than 230 million devices a year could be gone by the end of the decade

You might want to forget about that upgrade

Tarun Mottlia

Via TechRadar

Sep 30, 2026·Excerpt

Cheap smartphones could soon be a thing of the past, as AI boom snaps up chips — more than 230 million devices a year could be gone by the end of the decade — Image: (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Report claims production of budget smartphones could drop by 40% by 2030

The increasing costs of RAM and chipsets thanks to the AI data center boom are key factors in the forecast

In addition, basic product lines aimed at the lower end of the market are becoming less profitable as minimum spec phones are overlooked in favour of portable media production devices

It could be time to start saving for your next phone, thanks to the increasing demand for RAM…

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Cheap smartphones could soon be a thing of the past, as AI boom snaps up chips &mdash; more than 230 million devices a year could be gone by the end of the decade

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Cheap smartphones could soon be a thing of the past, as AI boom snaps up chips — more than 230 million devices a year could be gone by the end of the decade