Memory chip prices and rising component costs have become a topic of trouble for many brands, except for Apple and Huawei. It looks like both top tech players know well how to reap benefits and remain ahead in the league even at times of crisis.
The rising memory chip costs are mainly affecting budget-friendly brands in the market, though big players like Apple and Huawei will make the best use of this situation.
While consumers have just started facing the problem, the memory chip costs began increasing in the fourth quarter last year. Counterpoint Research has recently predicted that global smartphone sales will go even lower by the end of this year.
One of the Senior Research Managers for smartphones at Omdia noted that the memory price increase has not made a huge impact on devices in the first half of this year despite being increased by over 200%. But it has now started affecting production.
“The real impact is coming in the second half. We’re expecting the smartphone ASP in Q3 to increase sharply and even more steeply than the ASP increases over the past years. The memory price will continuously increase.”
Speaking of China, the entire smartphone market faced just a 2% decline. The top 10 brands suffered a significant drop in their annual growth. Apple iPhone and Huawei smartphones, though, showed positive progress.
The latest report says that Huawei is the only big brand in China expecting to increase shipments this year. The OEM has also seemingly increased its annual shipment target by 20%, aiming to ship 60 million devices in 2026.
Read More: Huawei to boost smartphone shipments by 20% despite memory crisis
(Image Credits: Huawei)