(Yicai) March 10 -- China’s Oppo Mobile Telecommunications announced it will raise prices of already released smartphone models because of the continuous surge in storage costs.

Prices of Oppo and OnePlus phones, including those under the Oppo A and K series, will increase from March 16, the Chinese company announced today, without disclosing by how much.

Other smartphone makers, such as Vivo and Honor, are also planning price hikes in mid-to-late March, Securities Times reported, citing sources from distributors and original design manufacturers. This is set to be the largest collective price adjustment in the mobile phone industry in the past five years.

Prices of storage chips for smartphones began rising in the second half of 2024, and they are now up more than 80 percent from a year earlier. Chinese phone brands raised prices of new products multiple times by no more than CNY1,000 (USD145) at the end of 2024 and throughout last year.

Global smartphone shipments are expected to plunge to 1.1 billion units this year, down more than 12 percent from last year to the lowest since 2013, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

However, some high-end brands, such as Apple and Huawei Technologies, are cutting prices in an effort to increase their market share. For example, the Huawei Pura 80 Pro, which was released in mid-2025 at a price of CNY6,499 (USD945), was available for CNY4,499 in offline stores during the Chinese New Year holiday, after discounts and government subsidies.

Apple launched promotional campaigns for the unpopular iPhone Air and iPhone 16 series during the Chinese New Year holiday, while the latest iPhone 17 series was not discounted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione