Memory shortage pushes engineers to design around availability, survey finds

What happened

According to a survey published by Memphis Electronic on October 27, 2026, conducted together with EETech and covering more than 100 engineers in North America and Europe, engineers are increasingly choosing memory components based on availability rather than performance or price. 95% of respondents said they had changed their sourcing strategy, their product designs, or both, over the past year; availability was the top concern (69%), followed by pricing (62%) and lead times (46%). The shortage is directly affecting product development: 36% redesigned products around memory components they could reliably obtain, 24% delayed product launches, 11% discontinued products altogether, and 46% reported increased engineering effort. Around 42% have increased inventory planning or safety stock, 39% have qualified alternative memory suppliers, and 27% have moved to older or more readily available memory technologies; legacy products such as DDR3, DDR4 and low-density eMMC were mentioned considerably more often as an expected challenge than leading-edge memory. Only 6% of respondents said they were genuinely confident in forecasting their memory needs over the next twelve months, nearly a third had little or no confidence, and only 13% have signed long-term contracts or supply agreements. Nikolaos Florous, Global Head of Product Marketing at Memphis Electronic, said the impact of supply shortages has already been designed into products, qualification processes and sourcing strategies, and that this is not simply a pricing cycle waiting to be resolved.

Impact and signal

Affected components and suppliers

Source and time

Source: Evertiq · 10/27/2026 · View original source