Overview
- Counterpoint Research’s Q2 report, published Thursday, showed U.S. smartphone shipments fell 5% year‑over‑year driven by price pressure on low-end devices.
- Sales of phones priced below $100 plunged about 64% year‑over‑year as component cost rises removed the slim margins that sustained those models.
- Prepaid phone volumes fell 11% year‑over‑year while Samsung and Motorola increased their prepaid shares to roughly 47% and 32% respectively.
- Analysts link the price shock to higher RAM and NAND costs caused by chipmakers shifting capacity to high‑bandwidth memory for AI data centers, which made memory a large share of the bill of materials for very cheap phones.
- The reshuffle has pushed some smaller brands out of the U.S., moved Motorola’s G series up into the $200–$299 band, and set the stage for further average selling price increases into Q3 and beyond.