Overview
- Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo told suppliers on Tuesday that they will reduce their 2026 shipment targets, with some cuts reaching about 30 percent.
- Xiaomi has made the largest revision, lowering its target to roughly 95 million units according to reporting, and warned the figure could fall further if supplies do not improve.
- The cuts are driven by a shortage of memory chips such as LPDDR DRAM and strained advanced packaging capacity as cloud and AI customers take supply and push prices higher.
- Vendors have responded by raising retail prices on some models by about 10–30 percent in the first quarter, shifting production away from mid- and low-end models, and in some cases reusing older memory stock to preserve new launches.
- Market research firms now expect a notable market slowdown in 2026, with forecasts of around a 14 percent global decline and a larger fall in Android shipments, and analysts say premium-focused firms with stronger memory access are likely to fare better while consumers face higher costs and fewer budget options.