Apple's iPhone market share rose despite a downturn in smartphone shipments

With no end in sight to the memory crunch, the smartphone market has fallen to a low not seen in more than a decade. According to market analysis firm Counterpoint Research , this past summer shipments of new smartphones declined by 20 percent year-over-year to their lowest Q3 level since 2012. The firm says "relentless" increases in DRAM and NAND pricing led to "sharply inflated" material costs, further exacerbating existing supply shortages and "significantly disrupting" shipments.

Rather than take a temporary hit, naturally OEMs are passing those costs onto consumers. As a result, global…