CMF Won't Launch New Phones in 2026, CMF Phone 2 Pro Successor Delayed Due to Ongoing RAM Shortage

Nothing CEO Carl Pei announced that the UK-based smartphone maker will not launch a flagship handset this year, as the company wants to focus on offering “meaningful” upgrades with each iteration. Nothing's sub-brand has decided to follow suit by shelving the plans to launch the CMF Phone 2 Pro this year. On top of this, a company executive has confirmed that the brand will not launch any new handsets this year. Unlike Nothing, CMF cites the exponential rise in memory prices due to an ongoing shortage of RAM sticks, as manufacturers have redirected supply towards the burgeoning AI industry.

Nothing Says CMF Phone 2 Pro Would Cost Almost Double Its Launch Price Today

On Friday, Nothing India Co-Founder and President, Akis Evangelidis, announced in a post on X that the company's sub-brand CMF will not launch any new smartphones this year. Moreover, the CMF India head confirmed that the tech firm has shelved the plans to launch the successor of CMF Phone 2 Pro, after the work on the handset had already begun.

“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,” Evangelidis pointed out. This comes as the smartphone industry as a whole is feeling the pinch from the ever-rising manufacturing costs and prices of DRAM sticks, due to an ongoing memory and storage component shortage.

Component manufacturers have redirected their existing stock of DRAM and NAND sticks to meet the increasing demand from the AI companies, which use the two components for their data centres. On top of this, OEMs have also shifted their focus to manufacturing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, creating more supply chain hurdles for the smartphone industry.

Further, the company executive highlighted that if the CMF Phone 2 Pro were re-launched now, the smartphone would cost between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 35,000 in India. This is almost double its launch price from last year. For reference, the CMF Phone 2 Pro was launched in India in May 2025 at a starting price of Rs. 18,999 for the base model, featuring 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Meanwhile, the higher-end 8GB + 256GB RAM and storage configuration arrived at Rs. 20,999.

While the company will not launch new CMF Phone models this year, Evangelidis did reveal that it does plan to launch new products in 2026, while also entering new product categories soon. However, the company executive did not provide further details on these devices.