Following Samsung and OPPO, another smartphone manufacturer, vivo, officially announces a price adjustment.

Phoenix Technology News, March 16 — A surge in memory prices is hitting the market, with multiple brands announcing upcoming price adjustments for certain products. Among them, vivo issued a notice stating that starting from 10:00 AM on March 18, the prices of some models, including those under the sub-brand iQOO, will be increased to give consumers a buffer period to purchase at the original prices.

In response, vivo stated: “Recently, the supply and costs of core components such as upstream storage have experienced significant fluctuations, and the industry is facing temporary pressures. In this context, we will adjust the suggested retail prices of some current models/versions according to phased pricing policies. Official channels will publish the relevant information.”

Less than a week ago, OPPO and OnePlus announced that starting March 16, they would raise prices on some already available older models. This is seen as a clear signal of the industry-wide price hike amid soaring costs of core components.

In February this year, Samsung launched the new Galaxy S26 series, with prices already increased by 1,000 yuan compared to the previous generation. Coincidentally, on March 10, Honor’s new foldable phone Magic V6’s 16GB+512GB version saw a price increase of 1,000 yuan over the previous Magic V5 of the same specifications, from 9,999 yuan to 10,999 yuan.

All of this may just be the beginning. These moves actually send an important signal: against the backdrop of rising upstream costs, the mobile phone market may see multiple rounds of price adjustments in 2026, with a possible second or even third wave of price corrections in the second half of the year.

In this context, the key variable driving changes in the global mobile phone market is no longer just AI capabilities, camera upgrades, or chip iteration speed, but a more fundamental and colder factor: storage prices.

Since the second half of 2025, the global storage chip industry has experienced an unprecedented overall price increase.

TrendForce’s latest storage industry survey shows that the forecasted increase in contract prices for conventional DRAM in the first quarter of 2026 has been revised upward from the previous estimate of 55%–60% to 90%–95%. The NAND Flash contract prices for the first quarter have also been raised from 33%–38% to 55%–60%, with further increases still possible.

IDC pointed out that after this round of price hikes, the cost share of memory semiconductors in smartphone BOM (Bill of Materials) has risen from 10%–15% to over 20%. The change in cost structure is rapidly propagating from upstream to end products.

Since the Spring Festival, topics related to “phone price increases” have repeatedly trended on social media. Unlike previous partial price hikes or small adjustments to flagship models, this could be the largest and most widespread collective price adjustment in the past five years.

Against this backdrop, the reality faced by “wait-and-see” consumers is clear: the earlier you buy, the more you save; the longer you wait, the more expensive it gets.

(Edited by: Liu Jing HZ010)

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