China Also Bows to Soaring DRAM and NAND Prices...Smartphone Price Hikes Ahead [Daily IT Pick]

[The Financial News] Chinese smartphone makers such as Oppo and Honor have finally decided to raise retail prices in response to the recent surge in memory semiconductor prices.
According to Gizmochina on the 11th, Oppo plans to increase prices for its budget Oppo A series, Oppo K Series, and some OnePlus models starting on the 16th. The hikes will apply not only to upcoming releases but also to smartphones that are already on the market.
Other Chinese smartphone manufacturers, including Vivo and Honor, have also completed preparations to raise prices this month. Market research firm Counterpoint Research projected that prices of new smartphones launched in China after March will be on average 15–25% higher than 2025 models.
With demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) soaring, prices of memory components such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and NAND Flash Memory have been climbing sharply. Manufacturers have decided to pass part of this higher cost on to consumers. Budget models, which already have thin margins, are being hit especially hard by the spike in component prices. Recently, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun remarked that the company’s smartphone division is under significant pressure from rising component costs and said it is exploring ways to ease the burden on consumers.
Memory is taking up an increasingly large share of overall smartphone production costs. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), memory now accounts for more than 20% of the cost of making a smartphone, and for budget models the share is close to 30%.
Data from DRAMeXchange shows that in February, the average contract price for standard PC DRAM products (DDR4 8Gb 1Gx8) was 13.00 dollars, up 13.04% from the previous month’s 11.50 dollars.
As a result, the average price of Double Data Rate 4 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR4 SDRAM) has now risen for 11 consecutive months since April 2025, when it stood at 1.65 dollars. This is the highest level since the survey began in June 2016.
For general-purpose NAND flash memory used in memory cards and NAND flash memory for USB devices (128Gb 16Gx8 Multi-Level Cell (MLC) flash memory), the average contract price in January was 12.67 dollars. This represents a 33.91% jump from 9.46 dollars a month earlier and marks the 14th straight month of increases.
mkchang@fnnews.com Jang Min-kwon Reporter