Global smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2026 decreased by 6.7% compared to the same period last year—to 277.5 million units, according to preliminary estimates by the International Data Corporation (IDC). This marks the second consecutive quarter of decline.
The decline in shipments is due to a shortage of memory chips and record-high prices for them.
“The cost of memory chips has risen by nearly 300% over the past year; it now accounts for more than 65% of the cost of goods sold in the low-end price segment, making it increasingly difficult for manufacturers with budget-friendly product lines to survive,” said Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC. “The memory crisis favors premium players and works against vendors operating in the low-end price segment.”
For the second quarter in a row, Apple Inc. and Samsung have demonstrated stability, remaining the only vendors in the top five to report sales growth, she noted. Apple achieved record results in the second quarter thanks to the success of the iPhone 17 and concerns about future price increases.
“This crisis has split the smartphone market into two parts,” said Francisco Geronimo, vice president of global client devices at IDC. “At the top are Apple and Samsung.”
They are pulling ahead of other companies, in part because they sell devices in which memory chips account for a smaller share of the cost. “At the bottom, manufacturers focused on low-cost, mass-produced devices are suffering—and so are their customers,” the expert said.
IDC, memory, SHIPMENT, smartphone, ЧИП
A new study from the National University of Singapore has shown that caffeine can restore impairments in social memory following sleep deprivation by acting on a specific circuit in the hippocampus. The study was published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
The scientists studied the CA2 region of the hippocampus, which is important for social memory—the ability to recognize familiar people or, in the experiment, familiar mice. In a laboratory model, after five hours of sleep deprivation, mice exhibited impaired synaptic plasticity and deficits in social memory, and caffeine helped restore these measures.
The researchers explain the effect by the fact that caffeine blocks the signaling pathways of adenosine receptors, which accumulate during wakefulness and inhibit brain activity. At the same time, the authors emphasize that their work does not concern a general “brain boost,” but rather a quite specific mechanism in a particular memory-related circuit.
As for the broader effects of coffee, literature reviews do link regular coffee consumption to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, while the data on Alzheimer’s disease appear less clear-cut: some reviews and meta-analyses point to a possible protective association, but the authors typically note that a causal relationship has not been definitively proven.
The authors’ main conclusion remains cautious: caffeine may temporarily mitigate certain cognitive effects of sleep deprivation, but it is no substitute for sleep. Sleep itself remains the foundation of normal memory and healthy brain function.
