This year seemingly hasn’t been a vintage one for phone companies. According to Counterpoint Research, global shipments are 20% lower this quarter than in the third quarter (Q3) of 2025, making this the lowest Q3 in 14 years.

You can probably guess the main reason for that, as the ongoing RAM crisis is both pushing up prices and leading to component shortages. That means disrupted shipments for phone manufacturers — causing some models to be in shorter supply — and higher prices for consumers, which can make the prospect of an upgrade less appealing or affordable.

Still, this 14-year low might not be purely down to the RAM crisis, as Counterpoint additionally claims that consumers are “holding on to their devices longer than expected.”

Now obviously, high prices could cause people to hold off on upgrading, but presumably the RAM crisis was factored into consumer behavior, so if people are holding onto their devices for longer than expected even with that factored in, then there might be something else at play too.

What could that be? The report doesn’t take a guess, but it might be that phones are simply less interesting or flawed than they once were. These days, even quite low-end phones are often highly capable, and run well for years — which wasn’t always the case.

At the high end, it’s increasingly hard for manufacturers to offer meaningful upgrades and differentiation when the best phones already have more power than most people need, along with superb screens and cameras.

Source link