Cut orders for budget phones and increase orders for high-end phones

Recently, the person in charge of the core technology of a leading domestic mobile phone module factory told Caijing that against the backdrop of soaring memory prices, the manufacturing demands of mainstream domestic mobile phone manufacturers are changing. Orders for thousand-yuan-level mobile phones are being cut, while some high-end flagship models, such as the OPPO Find series, are actually seeing an increase in orders.

Mobile phone manufacturers are scaling back their low-end product lines and focusing on high-end ones. Multiple dealers told Caijing that manufacturers like Xiaomi and Huawei are controlling the shipment volume of "lightweight" models. These products are currently "losing money on each unit sold," and manufacturers are trying to boost shipment volume from the high-end mobile phone market.

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Multiple mobile phone manufacturers have lowered their overall device order quantities for 2026.

According to public reports, the models with order cuts by various manufacturers mainly focus on mid - low - end and overseas products. Among them, Xiaomi and OPPO have cut orders by over 20%, vivo by nearly 15%, and Transsion has reduced its orders to below 70 million units (according to IDC data, Transsion's global mobile phone shipment volume in 2025 was approximately 120 million units).

High - end models have a stronger product premium ability and are relatively easier to absorb the additional costs brought about by the memory price increase. A dealer told Caijing, "The new products released by Huawei are generally concentrated in the high - end market with a price of over 6,000 yuan, which gives it enough profit margin to absorb cost fluctuations, so the impact it faces is relatively limited."

He said that in contrast, brands such as OPPO, vivo, Honor, and Xiaomi face more direct pressure. The main sales price range of these manufacturers is concentrated between 2,500 yuan and 4,000 yuan. The consumers they target are extremely sensitive to costs, and their generally accepted psychological price is the price after national subsidies.

This year, mobile phone manufacturers are facing the most severe cost pressure in recent years. As the demand for AI computing power climbs, the prices of core components such as storage continue to rise. Since March, the mobile phone industry has witnessed a new wave of collective price increases. Mainstream mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO, vivo, Honor, and Xiaomi have all raised the prices of some models, while Huawei has not adjusted prices for the time being. A dealer said, "After the mobile phone price increase, the mobile phone sales volume in his store has dropped by 30%. The most affected are the low - end phones below 2,000 yuan."

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As memory prices drive up mobile phone prices, how to achieve high - end and differentiated products to make consumers still willing to pay is a challenge for major mobile phone manufacturers. During the upward period of memory price increases, capabilities such as imaging and foldable screens can also drive the premium space of high - end mobile phones to a certain extent. The OPPO Find X9 Ultra has added a 10x native optical telephoto lens, and its price has increased by 1,000 to 1,500 yuan compared with the previous generation. Huawei has released the world's first large - scale foldable mobile phone, the Pura X MAX, and its price is 3,500 yuan higher than its basic model.

During the memory price increase wave, mobile phone manufacturers are raising prices to target the high - end market on one hand, and scaling back product lines and reducing shipment volumes on the other. In addition, mainstream mobile phone manufacturers are also looking for new growth categories. Recently, OPPO, vivo, and Honor will enter the market of handheld intelligent imaging devices.

In February this year, vivo officially confirmed the establishment of an independent vlog camera product project, and the product form is comparable to DJI's Osmo Pocket series. Since the end of 2025, OPPO and Honor have been reported to be accelerating the R & D of similar handheld gimbal cameras.

The aforementioned person from the mobile phone module factory said that the memory price increase wave is not a cold winter but an opportunity for high - end module factories. Currently, handheld intelligent imaging devices are mainly divided into two categories: action cameras and panoramic cameras. The former is suitable for high - intensity sports scenarios, and the latter supports 360° panoramic shooting. The person said that the underlying imaging technologies serving the mobile phone ecosystem can also be reused in the supply chain systems of cross - border hardware such as DJI drones and smart glasses.

The long - term profits of smartphones mostly depend on application distribution and ecological services. A senior person in the mobile phone industry said that just as Nokia was not defeated by its then - rivals Ericsson, Motorola, and Sharp, the real disruptive risks faced by today's mobile phone industry often come from cross - border hardware products outside the mobile phone circle, and mobile phone manufacturers are in a "defensive" posture.

The signs of "offense" have also emerged. The successive entry of OPPO, vivo, and Honor into the handheld intelligent imaging device market is a specific action from defense to offense. The industry insider said that once external hardware products verify a large enough market capacity (for example, the demand for a single product reaches the level of millions of units), mobile phone manufacturers can quickly enter and participate in the competition by virtue of their talent and supply chain advantages accumulated in the consumer electronics field. For them, making such products is often a "dimensionality - reduction strike."

This article is from the WeChat public account "Semi - Ripe Finance" (ID: Banshu - Caijing), by Huang Siyun and Zhou Yuan, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.