"Nearly Half a Year After Launch, Price Surges 1,000 Yuan Overnight" Multiple Smartphone Manufacturers Announce Price Adjustments

Source: Shanghai Securities Journal Author: Jing Huaiqiao Yang Yi

On March 16, Shanghai Securities Journal reporters visited mobile retail channels in Wuhan, Shenzhen, and other places and found that some mobile phone brands have already raised prices. The prices of related models have increased by 300 to 500 yuan based on factory prices, and after the cancellation of “store subsidies,” the price changes for some models are nearly 1,000 yuan.

Previously, several mobile phone manufacturers’ executives publicly stated that rising memory prices have put pressure on related businesses. Manufacturers such as OPPO and vivo announced sequentially that they would raise the prices of some models starting in mid-March. Due to explosive demand growth and severe capacity shortages, storage chip prices have continued to rise since September 2025.

“Nearly a year after listing, prices increased by thousands overnight”

Earlier, OPPO issued an official statement that, facing rising costs of key mobile components including high-speed storage hardware, the company carefully evaluated and decided that starting March 16, it would adjust the prices of some already released products. The affected products include the OPPO A series, K series, and OnePlus.

On the afternoon of March 16, reporters visited the JD MALL Wuhan Xujia Pavilion store. An OPPO sales representative said, “Some models still had a 400 yuan ‘store subsidy’ yesterday, but it has been canceled today.” Since the store has not yet received the new price list, products subject to price adjustments cannot be sold yet.

The sales representative explained that, for example, a OnePlus 15 with 16+512GB storage was launched in October last year. Its online price has now been adjusted to 5,399 yuan, while previously the lowest in-store price was just over 4,000 yuan. Meanwhile, multiple memory versions are out of stock and cannot be restocked temporarily.

On the same day, another phone manufacturer, vivo, issued a notice regarding the adjustment of suggested retail prices for some products. Due to the continued significant increase in global semiconductor and storage costs, after careful evaluation, the company will adjust the suggested retail prices of some products starting at 10:00 on March 18. This is the second major brand after OPPO to announce a price increase.

In Shenzhen Huaqiangbei, a vivo store told reporters they had not yet received specific notice of the price increase, but some models are already out of stock. It is expected that a satellite communication version will be launched later, and its price will definitely be higher than the standard version.

Market expectations for price increases have been present for some time. The Price Monitoring Center of the National Development and Reform Commission released an analysis forecast at the end of February indicating that the rise in storage chip prices is gradually being transmitted to consumer electronic terminal products. Manufacturers have limited room to ease cost pressures through trimming features, and raising terminal prices will become a general trend. Currently, prices for new domestic models from Xiaomi, vivo, and other brands with the same storage configurations have increased by 300 to 500 yuan compared to the previous generation.

Price hikes accelerate industry transformation

In addition to the already listed phones raising prices, the prices of some upcoming new models will also increase. Sales personnel from multiple manufacturers said that the prices of new phones to be released in March and April will be higher than last year, “and all models are expected to see price increases, only the timing will differ.”

Reporters learned that, with rising costs of memory and other materials, some manufacturers have already reduced the shipment volume of new phones planned for 2026.

An industry insider said that to mitigate the impact of the memory “super cycle,” some manufacturers are also trying to explore new categories. Several phone companies are developing imaging products similar to DJI Pocket.

“Currently, only storage cards are increasing in price; related imaging products have not increased,” confirmed sales staff at stores selling DJI and DJI-related products. The prices of imaging products on sale have not been affected by the memory price increase. This also reflects the feasibility of mobile phone manufacturers expanding into the imaging field.

Meanwhile, rising memory prices are further diversifying industry competition patterns. On February 27, Meizu Technology announced a strategic transformation, stating it would suspend in-house hardware development for new domestic phones and instead engage third-party hardware partners, with existing operations unaffected.

Meizu said that in recent years, competition in the domestic mobile phone market has been more intense than expected, with many brands choosing strategic contraction. The company hopes to maintain normal iteration of Meizu phones, but the continuous surge in memory prices has made the commercialization of new products impossible.

“Currently, the entire industry is under great pressure, and it requires the industry chain upstream and downstream to work together,” said Honor CEO Li Jian after the March 10 new product launch event, speaking to the Shanghai Securities Journal.

(Edited by: Wen Jing)