{"id":627114,"date":"2026-01-30T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=627114"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:01:07","slug":"smartphones-are-about-to-get-scary-expensive-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/smartphones\/627114-smartphones-are-about-to-get-scary-expensive-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Smartphones are about to get scary expensive in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African mobile network operators have warned that smartphone and laptop prices are expected to rise sharply in 2026 due to a global shortage of memory and flash storage chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DRAM and NAND flash prices have skyrocketed since late 2025 due to a surge in demand for processing power and storage in data centres powering artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data centre products generally have higher profit margins, making them more attractive customers for chipmakers. As a result, much of the supply is going towards AI giants, leaving little for consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With high demand and low supply comes increased prices. In November 2025<\/a>, South African tech distributor Syntech warned that the hikes were part of a fundamental shift rather than a quick spike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several online PC hardware retailers in South Africa have observed the prices of DDR memory sticks and solid-state drives more than triple<\/a> over the fourth quarter of last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They told MyBroadband that the price increases were likely to spill over to many more tech gadgets that require RAM and storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s top smartphone brand, Samsung, and Chinese companies Xiaomi and Realme have all warned of potential price hikes for their devices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the smartphone market, Counterpoint Research forecasts global shipments will shrink by 2.1% in 2026 due to higher memory costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of December 2025, it was forecasting average smartphone selling prices to increase by 6.9% in 2026. That was already up from a 3.6% increase expectation in September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a mid-December report, the International Data Corporation<\/a> (IDC) estimated average selling prices would rise by 3% to 8%, depending on the severity of the memory shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s fourth-largest mobile network, Cell C, had a much bleaker outlook for the local market, anticipating increases of 30% to 40% over the next two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the mobile network stressed that original equipment manufacturers must still provide precise adjustments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy now, while stocks last<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Cell C said it was closely monitoring developments and engaging with its partners to ensure it managed the impact responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our priority remains to provide customers with competitive pricing and transparent communication as market conditions evolve.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cell C recommended that consumers act quickly to get the best possible prices. “The best strategy is to buy sooner rather than later,” Cell C said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Shoppers can look to value\u2011focused brands or make use of instalment plans to lock in current pricing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN South Africa said it has already seen the prices on some of its smartphones increase, with the most significant impact being on budget and mid-tier devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these smartphones, memory accounts for a larger share of total production costs. That has led many manufacturers to raise prices, adjust specifications, or limit lower-margin models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IDC vice president of client devices Francisco\u00a0Jeronimo expects Android manufacturers to revert to 4GB RAM for some of their budget devices, down from 8GB and 6GB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The price increases are also expected to affect premium smartphones, which use the latest memory technology, which is in greater demand for AI applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Entry-level smartphones remain the most exposed due to tight margins, while mid and premium devices are also impacted as next-generation, AI-capable chipsets require more RAM and storage,” MTN said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN recommended that customers consider contract deals and operator promotions, choose memory configurations carefully, and time purchases around promotional periods, to offset rising handset costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One major mobile network operator is anticipating price increases of as much as 40% when its new stock arrives over the next two months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":555205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17934],"tags":[49955,355,45883,103070,42318,37244,102561,103069,42,11441,645,99046,41000,1361],"class_list":["post-627114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smartphones","tag-budget-smartphones","tag-cell-c","tag-counterpoint-research","tag-ddr-ram","tag-ddr5","tag-memory","tag-memory-prices","tag-memory-shortage","tag-mtn","tag-nand-flash","tag-samsung","tag-smartphone-prices","tag-smartphone-sales","tag-smartphones-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627114"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627165,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627114\/revisions\/627165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}