Thailand’s smartphone market is undergoing a sharp shift towards higher-priced devices as soaring memory costs squeeze entry-level models, pushing up average prices even as shipments decline.
Smartphone shipments to Thailand fell 11.1% year-on-year to 7.21 million units in the first half of 2026 from 8.11 million, while the average selling price jumped 25.4% to US$467 from $372, according to technology research group Omdia.
The contraction was concentrated in the cheap end of the market.
Shipments of smartphones priced less than $100 plunged 58.8% to 586,000 units.
“The segment accounted for roughly 838,000 of the 903,000 units lost across the total market, equivalent to nine out of every 10 units lost,” Sheng Win Chow, senior analyst at Omdia, told the Bangkok Post.
The market share for the segment roughly halved, from about one in six smartphones to one in 12.
Mr Chow said this reflects a supply problem rather than disappearing demand.
For smartphones priced less than $400, memory and storage now account for more than 60% of production costs, with some brands paying 4-5 times more for memory than a year ago. For phones priced less than $100, vendors have little margin to absorb those increases, forcing them either to raise prices or stop offering some models.
“The entry buyer has not left the market. The entry price has moved up one tier,” he said.
The shift was visible in the $100-199 segment, where shipments declined by only 8.6% and market share increased from 34.7% to 35.7%.
Transsion and Realme both increased shipments by 7.6% by moving more entry-level customers into this price band, rather than defending the rapidly shrinking sub-$100 segment, noted Omdia.
Vendors are trying to maintain affordable prices by reducing RAM or storage, dropping the cheapest versions from product line-ups or switching to slower storage. In such cases, specifications rather than retail prices absorb part of the rising cost.
At the other end of the market, Thailand’s relatively large premium segment is helping cushion the contraction. Shipments of smartphones priced more than $200 grew 4.6% in the first half, while devices costing more than $700 accounted for more than one-fifth of the market.
Samsung remained the country’s largest smartphone vendor, shipping 1.66 million units, up 1.1%, while its average selling price increased by only 4.7%.
Apple’s shipments rose 6.9% and its average selling price increased by 17.5%, giving the brand close to one in seven smartphones shipped in Thailand.
Oppo and Vivo followed a different path. Their average selling prices jumped 47.7% and 34.9%, respectively, while shipments declined by 29.9% and 19.7%.
Xiaomi’s shipments fell 21%, accompanied by a 12.3% increase in its average selling price.
The arrival of new flagship devices in the second half, including Samsung’s foldables and upcoming iPhones, should increase market value, but is unlikely to restore lost shipment volume, noted Omdia.
Mr Chow said premium phones “will not sell in the numbers that were lost at the bottom”.
There is also a channel effect. Dealers operate with limited budgets for inventory, meaning more money allocated to expensive flagship devices leaves less available for entry-level models.
Financing is becoming increasingly important in expanding access to premium smartphones, with instalment programmes, operator subsidies and alternative financing helping consumers spread their handset costs.
TOUGHER SECOND HALF
Cost pressure is expected to intensify during the remainder of 2026. Many smartphones currently on store shelves were manufactured using memory purchased months earlier at lower prices. As those inventories are cleared, today’s higher memory costs will increasingly feed through to vendors’ margins and product decisions.
Omdia expects full-year smartphone shipment volume to decline while average selling price continues to increase.
Whether the overall market continues growing in value is less certain. In the first half, the rise in average selling price more than offset falling shipments, resulting in market value growth.
The crucial question is how consumers respond as vendors rebuild their portfolios around higher costs, noted Omdia.
Much of the 25.4% increase in Thailand’s market-wide average selling price has resulted from a changing product mix rather than equivalent price increases for individual smartphones. For example, Samsung’s Galaxy A17 5G became 6.7% pricier between its Thai launch in August 2025 and May 2026, far below the overall market gain in average selling price.
If consumers baulk at higher prices for familiar models in the second half, demand could become a constraint, said Mr Chow.
“Value is the open question, and demand decides it, not supply,” he said.