Multiple smartphone brands announce price hikes

Recently, several mobile phone brands have announced adjustments to the suggested retail prices of some models.

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According to Jingchu Net on the 17th, Honor quietly adjusted the prices of WIN RT phones, with all versions increasing by 300 yuan. According to China Business Journal, on the evening of March 10th, Honor released the foldable screen new product Magic V6. Although the 12GB+256GB version maintained a starting price of 8,999 yuan, the high-end 16GB version was generally increased by 1,000 yuan compared to the previous generation.

According to Haixia Daobao on the 16th, a staff member at an Honor offline store in Xiamen told reporters, “We have received a notice of a price increase at the end of the month, covering flagship, mid-range, and entry-level models.” The staff member said that after the price increase of several entry-level models, the prices will surpass 2,000 yuan, and budget models are almost gone.

On March 16th, vivo released a statement titled “Adjustment of Suggested Retail Prices for Some vivo and iQOO Products,” stating that due to the continuous sharp increase in global semiconductor and storage costs, after careful evaluation, vivo will adjust the suggested retail prices of some products starting at 10:00 on March 18, 2026. The specific models and prices will be based on the product detail pages on official channels.

On March 10th, OPPO and OnePlus announced price adjustments, stating that starting March 16th, they will adjust the prices of OPPO A series, K series, and already released OnePlus products.

This round of price hikes at the beginning of 2026 is intensifying, mainly driven by the surge in AI server demand squeezing consumer electronics storage capacity. Counterpoint’s “Storage Price Tracking Report” shows that in the first quarter, DRAM prices increased by over 50% month-on-month, while NAND prices rose by over 90%. Storage costs have risen to over 20% of the phone BOM costs, with mid-to-low-end models approaching 30%.

As a result, cost pressures are quickly transmitted to the end products, and price increases have become a common industry choice.

Recently, Xiaomi Group founder Lei Jun said in an interview, “Due to the surge in AI demand, memory storage chips are severely in short supply, so over the past year, memory chips have indeed skyrocketed, putting great pressure on our mobile phone business and related sectors.”

Several industry analysts pointed out that, influenced by the ongoing tight supply and demand of storage chips, if upstream component prices continue to rise, mobile phone brands will initiate a second or even third round of price adjustments within the year, and the increase in purchase costs is likely to persist throughout the year.

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(Guangzhou Daily)