In 2026, everyone is saying that the strongest trump card of domestic phones—cost-effectiveness—is dead.

In fact, that is indeed the case. With the rise in prices of memory and flash storage, the cost structure of phones has undergone huge changes, causing phone costs to rise significantly, and phone prices have risen accordingly. Cost-effectiveness has become a thing of the past.

Data shows that from the third quarter of 2025 to the third quarter of 2026—over the course of one year—the global average phone price changed from $349 to $442, an increase of $93 (about 620 yuan), or 26.6%.

As shown in the figure above, specifically, Apple rose from $870 to $1,031 (about 6,800 yuan), an increase of $161—the highest price increase—but the proportion was only 18.5%.

Samsung rose from $304 to $367, an increase of $63, or 20.7%. OPPO rose from $221 to $267, up $46, and VIVO rose from $220 to $258, up $38.

The most surprising is Xiaomi, which rose from $148 to $210, an increase of $62—second only to Apple and Samsung, and more than OPPO and VIVO—with a price increase of 42%, about 410 yuan, the highest increase proportion.

This basically shows that cost-effectiveness is dead, because the average phone price has risen by more than 600 yuan. What was originally 1,000 yuan may have to become 1,600 yuan, so where is the cost-effectiveness?

Take Xiaomi as an example. Its average price used to be less than 1,000 yuan, and now it has become about 1,400 yuan. No matter what the reason for the price increase is, the first impression given to users is that it is no longer cost-effective.

This is also why since 2026, the three major manufacturers Xiaomi, OPPO, and VIVO have all fallen relatively badly. The lower the unit price of the phone, the more obvious the increase feels, the more uncomfortable the experience, and therefore the less users are willing to pay.

On the contrary, phones that were originally high-priced, such as Apple and Samsung, were already expensive, and users are less sensitive to price. People who buy them actually do not care much about cost-effectiveness, so their sales have been able to hold up somewhat, and Apple even saw sales rise.

As shown in the figure above, Apple's share rose from 18% to 21%, Samsung from 19% to 22%, while Xiaomi fell from 14% to 12%, OPPO from 12% to 9%, and VIVO from 9% to 8%. The shares of these three domestic phone makers are all declining.

Therefore, domestic phones that once relied on low prices and cost-effectiveness for volume sales have been quite severely hurt in this wave of storage price increases.