Shipments of global system-on-chips (SoCs) for smartphones in the first half of this year fell 15% from a year earlier. The spike in smartphone memory prices, manufacturers' conservative inventory management, and longer replacement cycles had an impact.
Market research firm Counterpoint Research released a report on the outlook for global smartphone SoC shipments on the 31st. An SoC is a semiconductor that integrates a smartphone's key functions—central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), and communication modem—into a single chip.
By company, shipments at market leaders MediaTek and Qualcomm each fell more than 25% from a year earlier. First-half market share was 32% for MediaTek and 22% for Qualcomm. In contrast, Apple, Samsung Electronics, Google, and UNISOC increased shipments. Apple's share rose 4 percentage points to 19% from a year earlier on stronger sales of the iPhone 17 series.
Qualcomm saw growth in premium shipments constrained as the Samsung Electronics Galaxy S26 series adopted both Qualcomm's "Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th generation" and Samsung Electronics' Exynos 2600. That contrasts with earlier Galaxy S series models that were fully equipped with Qualcomm chips. Sluggish sales of the Xiaomi 17 series also affected Qualcomm's premium SoC shipments.
MediaTek's budget and low-end 5G SoC business was hit by a memory supply crunch. However, sales of the premium "Dimensity 9500" series increased as adoption expanded among Vivo, Oppo, Pocophone, and Redmi.
UNISOC increased shipments as smartphone makers expanded the use of 4G platforms in budget models to lower component costs. Supply of 5G products also grew, centered on Pocophone and Redmi.
According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone memory prices in the second quarter of this year rose more than 300% from a year earlier. As a result, smartphone manufacturers increased long-term contracts to secure supply volumes, and the structure of smartphone manufacturing costs shifted to be more influenced by memory prices than by upgrades to specifications such as cameras and displays.
Despite the overall market contraction, shipments of smartphone SoCs that support generative artificial intelligence (AI) increased 24% in the first half. Demand for AI features and the premiumization trend in smartphones supported shipments of mid-high and premium models.
Counterpoint Research projected that full-year smartphone SoC shipments will decline 14% from a year earlier. It expects budget model shipments, in particular, to fall more than 30%, taking the biggest hit.
Sumeet Mandal, a research director at Counterpoint Research, said, "In the first half, smartphone memory expense exceeded SoC expense across all price tiers," and added, "With memory supply unlikely to normalize until the second half of 2027, the smartphone industry could face difficulties again next year."