<div id="readability-page-1" class="page"><div id="news-body"><p>(Yicai) April 16 -- Global mobile phone shipments slumped by between 4 percent and 6 percent in the first three months from a year ago, ending several straight quarters of growth and potentially marking the beginning of a more pressured year ahead with rising memory chip prices expected to increasingly weigh on smartphone makers, according to the latest data.</p><p>Tight supply of memory chips is directly affecting both cell phone shipments and demand, said Nabila Popal, senior research director for global consumer devices at US market research firm IDC. The smartphone market is now entering one of its most challenging periods. Rising component prices are pushing up the price of finished devices, with handset prices in some emerging markets jumping as much as 50 percent, significantly dampening demand.</p><p>Against the overall market downturn, performance among leading manufacturers is diverging. The US’ Apple and China’s Honor were the only leading handset makers to post growth in the first quarter, rising 5 percent and 25 percent respectively from a year ago, according to a report released by Chinese market research firm Counterpoint yesterday. Samsung Group, Xiaomi and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications all logged declines of 6 percent, 19 percent and 4 percent respectively.</p><p>The brands that managed to grow benefited from global market expansion and more locally tailored product mixes, as well as more aggressive sales strategies and efficient execution despite rising component costs, said an analyst from Hong Kong-based Counterpoint.</p><p>Prices of NAND and Dynamic Random Access Memory rose sharply in the three months ended March 31, according to data from the China Flash Market. Although mobile phone prices have lagged behind these increases, they are expected to catch up in the second quarter, with some contract prices potentially jumping by more than 80 percent. At the same time, servers, personal computers, automobiles and other end-user devices are all competing for the same memory supply, further tightening availability.</p><p>The price of Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory has more than tripled since last year and is still rising, Yicai learned from industry sources. As demand from data centers grows, memory resources are increasingly being diverted to higher-margin sectors, which is putting pressure on mobile phones and other consumer electronics.</p><p>Under such pressure, the smartphone market is accelerating its shift toward “lower volumes but higher prices,” as demand in the budget segment is squeezed by rising costs. Industry insiders believe that as the impact of rising memory prices continues to unfold, the adjustment will go on until the end of the year, and cellphone manufacturers may have no choice but to hike their prices repeatedly.</p><p>Editor: Kim Taylor</p></div></div>

SSNGY

603578

588170

<p>Global smartphone shipments fell by 4-6% in Q1, ending a growth streak due to rising memory chip prices. This has led to increased device costs, with some emerging markets seeing prices jump by 50%, dampening demand. Apple and Honor were the only major brands to report growth, while Samsung, Xiaomi, and Oppo experienced declines. The memory supply is tightening as demand from data centers grows, pushing manufacturers to consider higher prices for smartphones. Analysts predict ongoing adjustments in the market until year-end as the impact of rising memory costs unfolds.</p>

Yicai

Samsung Electronics 

THREE STARS NEW MATERIALS

ChinaAMC SSE STAR Semiconductor Material & Equipment Thematic ETF

Direxion Daily AAPL Bull 2X Shares

China Merchants CSI Semiconductor Industry ETF

ChinaAMC Guozheng Semiconductor Chip ETF

Harvest SSE STAR Chip ETF

SAMSUNG SEMICON

SPDR S&P Semicon

VanEck Semiconductor ETF

China Southern CSI Semiconductor Industry Custom ETF

iShares Semiconductor ETF

Guotai CES Semiconductor Chip Industry ETF

Invesco Semiconductors ETF

Direxion Semicon Bull 3X

GTJA Allianz CSI All Share Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment ETF

SP Funds S&P Global Tech ETF

Guotai CSI All Share Communications Equipment ETF

Fullgoal CSI Consumer Electronic Theme ETF

T-Rex 2X Long Apple Daily Target ETF

ISHRS S&P Glb It

Guotai CSI Semiconductor Material Equipment Theme ETF

GTJA Allianz SSE STAR Chip Design Thematic ETF

Apple

XIAOMI-W

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Sponsored GDR

Xiaomi Corporation

XIAOMI-WR

Xiaomi HK SDR 2to1

Global Smartphone Sales Dip in First Quarter as Rising Memory Costs End Growth Streak