Goldman Sachs has revised its projections for global smartphone shipments, anticipating a 4% decrease this year and a 3% decrease next year. The firm expects shipments to hit 1.14 billion units in 2026, followed by a slight increase to 1.17 billion units in 2027. This adjustment reflects a 10% year-on-year drop in shipments for the current year, with a projected 3% year-on-year rise in 2027. Previously, Goldman Sachs had predicted a 6% year-on-year decline in shipments for this year and a 2% increase for the following year. Furthermore, the firm anticipates smartphone shipments will climb to 1.18 billion units in 2028, marking a modest 1% year-on-year uptick. Goldman Sachs attributes this weakened outlook mainly to escalating costs of memory chips. The heightened demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) sector has strained chip supplies, leading major memory chip producers to reallocate more of their production capacity towards AI applications. This shift has, in turn, intensified the scarcity of memory chip resources within the consumer electronics industry.