Following OPPO, vivo announced that it will raise the prices of some models starting from March 18.

Image source: Jiemian Image Library, Fan Jianlei

On March 16th, vivo issued a "Statement on the Adjustment of the Suggested Retail Prices of Some vivo and iQOO Products", stating that affected by the continuous and substantial increase in the global semiconductor and storage costs, after careful evaluation, vivo will adjust the suggested retail prices of some products starting from 10:00 on March 18th, 2026. The specific models and prices shall be subject to the display on the official channel's product detail page.

According to Jiefang Daily, on March 11th, a media reporter learned from a mobile phone counter in a large shopping mall in Beijing that the price of a high - end vivo model had increased by 500 yuan. The salesperson said that the prices of other models would also increase gradually in the future.

Previously, on March 10th, OPPO issued an announcement on product price adjustment. The announcement stated that in the face of the rising costs of multiple key mobile phone components including high - speed storage hardware, after careful evaluation, the following decision was made: starting from 0:00 on March 16th, 2026, OPPO will adjust the prices of some already - released products. Currently, the already - released products involved in the price adjustment include the OPPO A series, K series, and OnePlus, excluding the OPPO Find series, Reno series, and OPPO Pad series.

This is also the second price adjustment of the brand after the end of the memory subsidy on March 4th, with the price increase ranging from 200 to 500 yuan. The products in the A and K series are generally priced between 1000 and 2000 yuan. Industry analysts believe that according to the market situation at the end of last year, the price of NAND and DRAM storage chips plus the package chips, combined with the main configurations, the overall cost of the mobile phone structure has been close to 90 - 100 US dollars. With the investment in R & D and channels, it is difficult for entry - level mobile phones to fully cover the costs.

On March 16th, a reporter from Jiemian News checked the OPPO official flagship store. The customer service replied that due to the rising costs of multiple key mobile phone components including high - speed storage hardware, the prices of some products had been adjusted. The specific prices shall be subject to the sales page. Currently, among the top - selling products in the store, the OPPO A3i 5G model starts at 999 yuan, the OPPO K12s 5G model starts at 1399 yuan, and the OPPO K13s 5G model starts at 1799 yuan.

In addition, leading brands such as Xiaomi and Honor have also signaled price adjustments. On March 5th, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Group, said that the soaring demand for AI has led to a sharp increase in the price of storage chips. He said, "Our mobile phone business is facing great pressure, and we will try various ways to minimize the difficulty for consumers to accept the price increase."

Industry analysts believe that affected by the explosive demand for generative AI, the global storage production capacity has been largely occupied by AI servers. The prices of DRAM and NAND flash memory for mobile phones have increased by more than 300% in the past three months. The proportion of some storage components in the overall cost of mobile phones has soared from 10% - 15% to 30% - 40%, directly squeezing the profit margins of mid - and low - end models.

Currently, the inventory of storage chips of mobile phone manufacturers is almost exhausted, and price increase is an inevitable choice to relieve the cost pressure. In addition, the processing fees of core chips, the prices of OLED screens, batteries and other components have increased simultaneously. Coupled with the increased investment in edge - side AI R & D, multiple cost pressures have jointly promoted this industry - wide price adjustment.

Industry insiders predict that this will be the largest - scale and most significant round of collective price adjustment in the mobile phone industry in the past five years, and the upward trend is difficult to ease in the short term. Affected by cost pressure, the mobile phone market in 2026 may see multiple rounds of price adjustments, and there may be a second or even a third round of price adjustments in the second half of the year.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Jiemian News", author: Shen Xiaoge. It is published by 36Kr with permission.