- The president of Xiaomi has warned that smartphone prices could increase a lot
- This is due to the increasing cost of memory chips.
- The price of memory would affect all phone brands, not just Xiaomi
If you thought smartphones were expensive now, you could be in for a shock next year as, according to Xiaomi president Lu Weibing, their prices could see a “considerable increase.”
This claim was made during an earnings conference call (via PakGazette), with the reason being the rising cost of memory chips.
You see, memory chips are in high demand right now as they are used in AI servers, so memory chip prices are increasing, and that will also affect the price of memory used in phones.
Since this claim about rising smartphone prices comes from the president of Xiaomi, we can be almost certain that Xiaomi’s upcoming phones will cost more than they would otherwise; For example, next year’s Xiaomi 18 series could be extremely expensive.
A problem for everyone
But this problem isn’t one that just Xiaomi will face: the entire industry will have to address rising memory prices, which will presumably mean higher prices for smartphones or lower profits for companies if they don’t pass costs on to consumers.
Since most companies are not known to favor sacrificing profits, we would assume that in most cases there will probably be price increases. That means big-name phones like the Samsung Galaxy S26 series and iPhone 18 line could also cost more than their predecessors.
In fact, South Korean publication Chosun recently reported that a price increase was expected for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. Interestingly though, News Pim has claimed that the base model Galaxy S26 will not see a price increase, but that this will be achieved by reversing course on some planned upgrades. So that’s another possibility: that we see smaller improvements than usual next year to keep prices at current levels.
Neither of those options sound very good, so for now we suggest you save up if you plan to upgrade your phone next year, or wait a little longer and hope that the price of the memory chip eventually drops again.
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