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# DRAM Shortage Prices Out Budget Smartphone Buyers in India and Africa
- URL: https://adjacent.media/signals/dram-shortage-prices-out-budget-smartphone-buyers-in-india-and-africa/
- Published: 2026-05-24T16:06:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-24T16:06:31.000Z
- Description: Memory chip shortages are collapsing the sub-$200 smartphone segment in emerging markets. Price-sensitive consumers have no alternative—manufacturers can’t absorb DRAM costs without abandoning the category entirely.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #signal, theme-connected, hardware costs, mobile infrastructure, emerging markets

Source: [Davidoks](https://davidoks.blog/p/ai-is-killing-the-cheap-smartphone?ref=adjacent.media)

Memory chip shortages are collapsing the sub-$200 smartphone segment in emerging markets. Price-sensitive consumers have no alternative—manufacturers can't absorb DRAM costs without abandoning the category entirely. This creates a direct exclusion mechanism: rather than a gradual shift upmarket, entire customer bases in high-growth regions face a binary choice between obsolete models or stepping into the $250+ tier they can't afford. Market share flows to used phones and regressive alternatives. The constraint is raw input costs, not demand or competition—a supply-side chokepoint with consequences for digital inclusion.