TL;DR: Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the electronics industry has been there for a while now. After grappling with rising memory costs and inventory shortages, and eventually realizing that the situation may take years to resolve, some device makers are looking for alternative solutions that give old hardware components a new lease on life.
According to a recent report from TrendForce, DRAM contract price hikes are forcing some smartphone brands to consider reballed memory components for their budget lines. In short, reballed memory refers to used memory salvaged from old hardware and fitted with new solder balls so they can be installed on other devices.
TrendForce said most of the reballed memory on the market consists of LPDDR4X 4GB modules, and is ideal for entry-level 4G phones. But with DRAM prices expected to continue on an upward trajectory and little inventory relief in sight, lower-spec components and reballed memory could eventually infiltrate higher-priced devices that have historically been categorized as mainstream.
The use of reballed memory in the smartphone industry is not new, but it isn't terribly common either. TrendForce estimates that "recycled" modules will account for 3-4% of mobile RAM in 2026, and warns that adoption could climb to as high as 7-9% next year.
TeamGroup said earlier this month that the worst of the ongoing memory shortage is still to come. Chen Ching-wen, the Taiwan-based hardware company's CEO, believes prices will keep climbing for months to come. Eventually, however, people won't be able to buy memory no matter how much money they have because there simply won't be any to spare.
SK Hynix's messaging isn't much different. As part of its latest financial results for the third quarter, the South Korean chipmaker said that demand for AI-related products is not slowing down. As such, they expect the memory market to sustain growth over the mid- to long-term. That is great news for those involved in the manufacturing process and their investors, but concerning for virtually everyone else.