China Smartphone Market Faces Historic Price Hikes as Memory Chip Crunch Deepens; Meizu Halts Hardware Development

China's smartphone market is experiencing its widest price increases in years, affecting nearly all brands and product categories as a deepening memory chip shortage drives up component costs, Nikkei Asia reported on March 7, 2026. The crunch is compounded by Apple's new budget iPhone 17e exerting additional competitive pressure on Chinese brands already squeezed by higher DRAM and NAND pricing. Meizu, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, separately announced it will suspend development of new mobile hardware — a signal that the supply and margin pressures are forcing consolidation at smaller players in the industry.

Key Takeaways

• China's smartphone market is seeing its widest ever price hikes across almost all brands and categories due to a deepening memory chip supply crunch — reported by Nikkei Asia, March 7, 2026
• Apple's new sub-$600 iPhone 17e (A19 chip, 256GB) adds competitive pricing pressure on Chinese brands already absorbing higher DRAM and NAND costs from the AI-driven memory shortage
• Meizu announced it will suspend developing new mobile hardware, signaling that smaller Chinese smartphone makers cannot absorb the margin compression from the current memory supply crunch

Original source: Nikkei Asia