If you want to choose the biggest upgrade in the field of mobile phones in recent years, I think in addition to the Kirin 9000s and the imaging system, it is the improvement of storage. Today, we can already see many thousand-yuan machines equipped with 1T storage, such as Redmi Note12 Turbo; You can also see the cost-effective flagship, equipped with 24G super large memory, such as the OnePlus Ace2 Pro. Such an upgrade has truly improved the consumer experience.
However, such good days are coming to an end. Previously, Samsung and hynix and other memory manufacturers have announced production cuts to ensure their profits in the semiconductor industry, recently, Samsung expects that from 2024 there will be a shortage of DRAM and NAND Flash supply in some regions, storage market supply and demand improvement and price increase trend will appear at the same time. Since the fourth quarter of this year, the impact of rising costs of storage components has gradually been transmitted to the consumer side, and terminal products such as laptops and mobile phones may face price increases.
The mobile phone market ushered in a cold winter
For consumers, the price increase in the short term must be bad news, the cost of buying a mobile phone will increase significantly, according to the news of the digital chat station, the starting price of some new flagship models is estimated to rise by 300-500 yuan. As mentioned earlier, the 16G and 24G large-scale storage products that began to be popularized by OnePlus will become more rare in the market. The price of the large-capacity version of the model will also be further increased. The mobile phone industry is like this, the PC industry is not spared, the price increase of solid-state drives, memory has been effectively reflected in the retail market.
This is undoubtedly worse for major mobile phone manufacturers. In recent years, with the growth of consumer replacement cycles, the sales increment of the mobile phone market has been at a low level, and major brands have had a hard time. Today's rising storage prices, on the one hand, increase the cost of products, on the other hand, and on the other hand, frustrate consumers' desire to replace mobile phones. Whether it is Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Honor, or Huawei and Apple, the head of the industry, in the face of this wave of changes, I am afraid it is difficult to stand alone. This really confirms Ren Zhengfei's saying: "Pass the cold to everyone"
Blessings and misfortunes depend, and woes and blessings fall
However, the so-called blessing and misfortune depend on each other, for the domestic supply chain, the price increase led by Samsung and Hynix is not a bad thing. As we all know, the domestic storage industry today has first-line manufacturers such as Changxin and Changjiang. For them, this price increase can be actively responded to accelerate technology research and development and capacity expansion. To control the price increase to a certain extent, it is the best time to penetrate the supply chain of major manufacturers, and become an "alternative product" for Samsung and Hynix through price advantages.
The increase in order volume will bring two major benefits: on the one hand, sufficient cash flow, which will bring considerable R&D resources, which can further narrow the gap in technology and production capacity, or even surpass it; Another aspect is the reduction of costs. When R&D investment is evenly shared by huge shipments, the production cost of products will be reduced to a "cost-effective" range, reducing costs through scale effects and technological innovation, so as to provide consumers with more cost-effective product choices. This is also a general law in the semiconductor industry.
In general, for consumers and the supply chain, the rise in storage component prices is a painful period. However, as long as it withstands this painful period, the domestic supply chain can move towards higher autonomy and better service through technological innovation, market expansion and cooperation with downstream customers. It is believed that with the joint efforts of all parties, the domestic storage industry will usher in a more prosperous future.
As for the friends who are still waiting to change their mobile phones and computers recently, I can only say: as soon as possible... #秋日生活打卡季#