AI just shrank the PC market and is killing the cheap phone. Your gadgets are next
For the first time in two years, the world bought fewer PCs. Global shipments of desktops, notebooks, and workstations fell 3.6% in the second quarter of 2026, to 65.7 million units, according to the analyst firm Omdia. The cause is not weak demand. It is the price of memory, and the reason it is soaring leads straight back to AI.
The AI boom has a voracious appetite for memory chips. Data centres are buying up DRAM and NAND to feed their servers, and that has drained supply for everything else. Prices have jumped, and device makers are passing the cost on. The gadgets in your pocket and on your desk are the collateral damage.
The first PC decline in two years
Desktops held up better, slipping 1.3% to 13.9 million units. Notebooks took the hit, down 4.2% to 51.7 million. Across comparable models, Omdia says prices have risen by...
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