China's smartphone makers adjust strategies to combat rising costs

As global smartphone shipments are on pace for their worst since 2013, China's mid-range market — the sales lifeline for domestic brands — is seeing its sharpest price realignment in years.

According to the latest industry data, global smartphone shipments in 2026 are forecast to plunge 13.9 percent year-on-year to approximately 1.08 billion units — a deeper contraction than the 12.4 percent decline projected in February and the lowest annual volume in over a decade. Yet even as overall demand shrinks, rising component costs are forcing smartphone manufacturers to raise prices on their most competitive models.

With the "618" shopping festival and summer upgrade season approaching, new launches including the Huawei nova 16 series, Honor 600 series, OPPO Reno16 series, and vivo S60 series show a clear trend: mid-range prices are climbing, with increases ranging from 300 to 1,000 yuan ($140) over previous generations.

The 2,000-to-5,000-yuan segment has long been the volume battleground for domestic players, but persistently rising memory costs have made the old "price-for-volume" strategy unsustainable. A Counterpoint report projects that prices of memory chip LPDDR4/5 in the second quarter of 2026 will roughly double from fourth-quarter 2025 levels.

In response, brands are adopting different approaches — some raising prices with added features, others introducing lower-spec, cheaper variants, and a few adjusting configurations to maintain price points. Vivo, for instance, has adopted a notably flexible strategy. The S60 series retains its standard edition while adding a new "Yuanqi Edition" powered by a Dimensity 7500 processor. The Vivo S60 series also targets young users with upgrades in design, imaging, and daily experience — including a 4K Live camera for authentic, real-time captures.