Nothing Cancels CMF Phone Release This Year Because of Expensive RAM?

Nothing can derail CMF's goals for smartphones this year since low-cost manufacture is challenging due to rising RAM and NAND prices brought on by AI data center demand and memory shortages.

The company said this year is likely to see no new CMF smartphone launches, effectively meaning Nothing cancels CMF phone plans for this year. The global shortage of lower-grade RAM and NAND has pushed prices up and demand for memory from AI data centres has shut CMF out of low-cost memory. 

Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis posted on X that increasing memory and storage costs were underlying factors of the decision. He believes that the current market conditions mean that it would be hard for CMF to come out with a phone that upgrades the CMF Phone 2 Pro without a major increase to the retail costs.

CIO Bulletin views that the rise in demand for DRAM and NAND memory, along with OEMs moving towards high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production for AI applications, has tightened supply even more. This situation has created challenges for smartphone makers around the world. Although CMF will not launch new smartphones this year, the brand aims to expand its product lineup in 2026 and explore new categories. However, details are not revealed.

Nothing co-founder and the man behind the CMF Phone series, Akis Evangelidis, confirmed on X that the next CMF Phone release has been canceled, explaining in part:

“We were working on a successor but with memory prices where they are right now, we can’t build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF. As a result, we’ve decided not to launch a new CMF phone this year.” 

The Anticipated New Launches of Nothing

Upcoming "b" Series: Nothing’s official channels have cryptically teased a new mysterious letter “(b)”, pointing towards either a fresh mid-range smartphone or an entirely new audio category.

Pokémon Teasers: The brand is teasing two upcoming devices internally codenamed after Pokémon (Blastoise, and Jumpluff). Since Nothing India posted the Blastoise teaser, at least one of these would likely be launched in India.

Nothing Phone 4a: This budget-friendly phone brings high-end features such as a 120Hz flexible AMOLED display and triple cameras closer to the flagship tier without the premium price tag globally and in India