Memory and storage are becoming core cost drivers, with higher DRAM and UFS adoption driven by AI, gaming, and imaging, pushing BoM share toward 20% in flagships.SoC market dynamics are shifting, as shipment declines, premiumization, and in-house chip strategies favour Apple, Samsung, and Google while pressuring volume-focused vendors.Market recovery is unlikely before 2027, with OEMs making short-term feature trade-offs, optimizing portfolios, and exploring cloud offloading amid sustained memory supply constraints.Access to full report here: Beyond Compute: How Memory Costs Are Reshaping the Smartphone SoC LandscapeThe smartphone industry is entering a phase where memory and storage are becoming central to performance, cost structure, and competitive positioning. Memory already accounts for a much larger share of smartphone bill-of-materials (BoM) than it did just a few years ago. In 2020, memory accounted for roughly 8% of component costs in a flagship device such as the iPhone 12 Pro Max (6GB DRAM and 128GB NAND). By September 2025, that share had risen to around 10% in the iPhone 17 Pro Max (12GB DRAM and 256GB NAND). Meanwhile, in current Android flagships configured with 12GB-16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB-1TB UFS 4.0 storage, memory can represent 20% or more of total BoM with the ongoing memory price hikes. This shift reflects not only higher component cost, but also rising demand from on-device AI, advanced gaming, and increasingly complex imaging pipelines.