Phone brands are going through a tough time due to the memory crisis and this challenging situation may persist for the entire year (2026), except for one company – HUAWEI. A research firm predicted that the Mate phone maker will be the only tech giant in the smartphone market to record a sales hike in 2026.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, phone brands are once again standing at a critical stage in 2026 as of the memory supply shortages, but Huawei is away from this tension.
The meteoric memory chip prices are pushing many smartphone brands to choose between the “higher retail cost” for their devices or use downgraded storage specs.
Not only the brands, but the entire global smartphone market is under major pressure and may see a significant downfall of 14% in shipment volume this year – the lowest figure after 2013. Though Huawei doesn’t count in this stressful situation.
Counterpoint says that three big brands won’t see an impact of the ongoing crises – Apple, Samsung, and Huawei. The first two are in the safe zone due to their “already high price” portfolio for premium devices. And Huawei has a good strategy.
Despite many brands increasing the price of even existing devices, Huawei has been offering good deals to date. Moreover, it has even reduced the cost during the current 618 Summer Sales on several flagship regular and foldable smartphones.
On the other hand, brands like Xiaomi are constantly falling into this stressful condition. The company saw an 11% YoY drop in the first quarter of this year. Its smartphone revenue fell 12.5% to 44.3 billion yuan, and gross margin decreased to 10.1% from 12.4% in 2024.
Xiaomi even warned:
“Non-foldable flagship smartphones sold in China could break the 10000 yuan ($1478) threshold by the end of 2026.”
Even though it’s just a prediction, how far things really get worse for phone brands will come into the light by later this year.
(Image Credits: Huawei)
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