Rising Memory Costs Disrupt China’s Smartphone Component Market
The memory supercycle is accelerating, and smartphone manufacturers are taking the hit. DRAM giants are ratcheting up prices as supply for older technologies like DDR4 remains scarce. As a result, delivery wait times are ballooning—Commercial Times says LPDDR5X now requires 26–39 weeks to arrive, pushing orders well into mid-2026.
Costs keep climbing, squeezing upstream chip suppliers and handset brands alike. Analysts caution that MediaTek may soon feel margin pressure, while EE Times China reports Xiaomi has already bumped up pricing to cope with soaring memory expenses.
Supply chain sources say major memory vendors — Samsung, SK hynix and Micron — are preparing additional price hikes of up to 30% in Q4. The ripple effect is already visible across new product launches. According to the report, prices for vivo’s X300 series have increased by CNY 100–300, OPPO’s Find X9 by CNY 200–300, Realme’s GT8 by CNY 300–500, and the starting price of the iQOO 15 series has risen from CNY 3,999 to CNY 4,199 — roughly a 5% jump. Redmi’s K90 is far from the only device affected.
EE Times China notes that mid-range and entry-level smartphones are particularly vulnerable to component-cost inflation. Realme China President Xu Qi said memory and displays represent the biggest cost drivers for brands such as iQOO, adding that pricing pressures now extend beyond launch MSRPs to major promotional cycles throughout a device’s full market lifespan.
I am one of the editors here at www.systemtek.co.uk I am a UK based technology professional, with an interest in computer security and telecoms.