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TrendForce reports that reballed memory—chips desoldered from old devices and resoldered onto new ones—currently makes up 3–4% of smartphone memory use, mostly in budget 4G phones priced under roughly $200 with 4GB LPDDR4X modules. The research firm projects this share will rise to 7–9% by 2027 as manufacturers look for cheaper alternatives to new memory chips.
Lenovo is selling a high-end configuration of its IdeaPad Slim 5x—16GB RAM, 512GB storage, a high-resolution OLED display, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Plus chip—for $900, a $250 discount. A lower-resolution version of the same laptop is also available directly from Lenovo.com for $800.
On his first earnings call as Apple CEO, John Ternus reported $418 billion in fiscal 2026 revenue, up 12% year over year, calling it the company's best fiscal year. He said chip and memory shortages have constrained supply of iPhone, iPad and Mac devices and warned the constraints, along with possible further price increases, could extend into 2027. iPhone revenue hit a record $57.6 billion for the quarter, driven by the iPhone 18 Pro line and early sales of the new foldable iPhone Duo.
Apple posted stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue but missed on iPad sales and gave a margin outlook that unsettled investors, sending shares down about 4% in premarket trading. Palantir beat Wall Street's third-quarter estimates, with U.S. commercial revenue surpassing government revenue for the first time, yet its stock fell roughly 6.5% to 6% in premarket trading.
Apple beat earnings and revenue estimates for its latest quarter, including strong iPhone sales, but CFO Kevan Parekh forecast gross margin of 45%-46% for the holiday quarter, below the 46.3% analyst average. Parekh attributed the shortfall mainly to rising memory chip costs and expenses tied to ramping up Siri AI. Apple shares fell about 3% in extended trading after the announcement.
Chinese supply chain outlet ChannelGate reports that some board makers have exhausted RTX 50-series stock, while others ship remaining units in small batches at higher prices. To keep distributors supplied, manufacturers are redirecting them toward older cards like the RTX 3060 (12GB and 8GB), RTX 3050, and some unnamed AMD Radeon models.
SK Hynix has told customers that RAM and flash memory shortages, driven largely by AI demand, are likely to continue through at least 2030. Apple is reportedly among 14 major tech companies with long-term priority supply agreements, but these contracts include clauses allowing SK Hynix to raise prices in line with market conditions.
Samsung's P9 MicroSD Express cards are on sale at Amazon and B&H Photo, with the 256GB version priced at $47.99 and the 512GB version at $99. Both prices remain above the cards' original launch prices, which the piece attributes to an ongoing memory shortage.
Counterpoint's Q3 data shows global PC shipments dropped to 57 million units from over 70 million a year earlier, a 21 percent year-over-year decline and a 13.8 percent drop from the prior quarter. The firm forecasts a roughly 27 percent year-over-year decline for Q4 and expects weak conditions to persist into 2027. Lenovo remains the top vendor despite a 23 percent decline, HP fell 31 percent, Dell dropped 25 percent, while Apple slipped only 11 percent, gaining relative market share.
IDC's preliminary Q3 2026 data shows global smartphone shipments fell 22% year-over-year, driven largely by a memory chip shortage that has pushed component costs up roughly 350% since last year. Samsung led with 57.8 million units shipped (22.6% share), just ahead of Apple's 57.3 million, as Apple's iPhone shipments fell only 4%—the smallest decline among top vendors—narrowing the gap to 500,000 units and 0.2 percentage points.
Apple delayed the standard iPhone 18 until early next year while launching only the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max and iPhone Duo this cycle. Leaker Fixed Focus Digital reports that component inventory levels tied to the base iPhone 18, set to begin production in late November, suggest a substantial stockpile is being built.
Samsung is facing a broader memory chip shortage affecting device shipments industry-wide, but strong demand for its Galaxy Z Fold 8 foldable phone has helped the company maintain its position as a top smartphone shipper. The strength of this product lineup is credited with cushioning the company against the wider supply constraints.