The end for mid-range smartphones.

The era of affordable smartphones is on the verge of collapse. Memory chips are scarce, Oppo has just announced a price increase, and numerous other brands are finding it difficult to stay out of the fray.

Mid-range smartphones are not holding up against the storm of component shortages. Photo: Bloomberg .

On March 10th, Oppo officially announced price adjustments for some of its products, effective March 16th. The company cited rapidly increasing component costs, particularly for high-speed storage hardware. The affected products are in the mid-range to low-end segments, including the A, K, and OnePlus series. The price increase ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 yuan (US$145 to US$290 ).

Oppo isn't the only company feeling the pressure from rising component costs. Samsung's Galaxy S26, launched in February, saw a $100 price increase compared to its predecessor. Notably, the South Korean company, which is both a phone manufacturer and a major supplier of memory chips to the entire industry, wasn't immune to the storm either.

Meizu has announced a temporary halt to the development of domestic hardware for its new phones. This is a clear signal that smaller brands are losing their bargaining power in the supply chain. "I heard that many manufacturers had plans to launch Air models, but in the end, only Apple and Huawei succeeded," said Wan Zhiqiang, Marketing Director of Meizu.

The root cause stems from the global AI infrastructure race. Companies like OpenAI and cloud service providers are massively purchasing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for AI servers. This has directly pushed several critical electronic components into scarcity.

Oppo has been forced to raise prices on its mid-range and low-end smartphones. Photo: Bloomberg .

Mid-range and low-end smartphones are suffering the biggest losses. Experts estimate that the cost of NAND chips, DRAM, chipsets, and motherboards alone is nearly $90-$100 . Therefore, manufacturers are making almost no profit.

Counterpoint Research forecasts that the price of LPDDR memory chips for mobile devices could nearly triple to its Q3 2025 level. "Low-cost phones could be the most affected. We've seen some Android manufacturers raise prices by 10-20% in January this year," warned Wang Yang, chief analyst at Counterpoint.

IDC forecasts that global phone shipments will decline by 12.9% in 2026. The market is only expected to recover from 2027 onwards, if chip supply keeps pace with demand.

Source: https://znews.vn/dau-cham-het-cho-smartphone-tam-trung-post1634066.html