Storage surges by 300%! After the phone price increase, no one is buying: Qualcomm and MediaTek together cut production by approximately 20 million processors.

Fast Technology April 3 news: According to media reports, the two leading mobile chip manufacturers in the world, Qualcomm and MediaTek, have both simultaneously reduced their shipment volumes of 4nm mobile processors. The total reduction scale is 15 million to 20 million units, corresponding to 20,000 to 30,000 wafers.

Over the past three months, the spot prices of global memory chips have cumulatively risen by more than 300%. The share of memory components in the cost of complete devices has increased from the previous 10%-15% to 30%-40%.

The root cause of this round of order cuts lies in the soaring prices of memory chips. This cost pressure has been passed on to increases in mobile terminal retail prices, and supply-chain pressure has begun to seriously affect demand in the smartphone market.

The direct driver of higher phone prices comes from comprehensive increases in upstream component costs— including procurement price increases for core parts such as processors, memory chips, and display panels— forcing handset manufacturers to raise retail prices to pass on costs.

Major brands such as Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have already raised prices for multiple mid- to low-end models by 100 to 300 yuan RMB starting from the first quarter of 2026, and in some models, the price increase exceeds 8%.

Especially after March, the average price of new smartphones in the China market for the same tier as 2025 has risen by 15% to 25%. In addition, industry data shows that in the first quarter of 2026, the average smartphone price is up 12.3% year over year, and the upward trend is expected to continue into the second quarter.

Public information shows that, in its latest survey, an organization has cut its forecast for 2026 global smartphone shipments to 1.1 billion units, a year-on-year decrease of 13%. Among them, the Android camp’s shipment volume is forecast to fall 15% year over year.

This adjustment is not limited to the low-end market; demand in the mid-tier to mid-high-tier segments has also clearly weakened.

Supply-chain insiders said that this round of adjustments has not yet reached the bottom. With memory chip quotations staying high and consumer sentiment remaining sluggish, it is expected that the smartphone market will only stabilize around mid-2027.