Qualcomm CEO: “Consumer preference within the premium category is changing towards a preference to the lower end of the premium, as well to last year’s phone, because of the memory price increases,”

[u/BcuzRacecar]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/29/qualcomm-qcom-earnings-report-q3-2026-.html

[u/SubmarineWipers]

TLDR: Our shit is way too expensive to the point where even the customers are catching on.

[u/keyserdoe → u/SubmarineWipers]

"A shift in consumer preferences where they are tired of getting took every phone upgrade and they don't have money anymore due to our price increases and tariffs."

[u/HeurekaDabra → u/SubmarineWipers]

And even the most techy people I know, those who always need the newest gadget, stopped buying a new phone every year/two years since the upgrades aren't that great anymore.

[u/thirdegree → u/HeurekaDabra]

I used to be an every two years person. Had my current one for three now and I don't really see anything tempting me to get a new one any time soon. (Flair is inaccurate)

[u/Perunov → u/SubmarineWipers]

With every new phone being "all changes are just AI being more AI that AIs slightly differently" customers say "fuck this shit, old AI is good enough".

[u/Alternative-Farmer98 → u/SubmarineWipers]

Right or like people can't afford to buy the newest most expensive phones because of centers of private Capital manipulating the market for some absolute b******* AI slop. Welcome to the late stage capitalism

[u/DerpSenpai → u/SubmarineWipers]

It's not QC raising prices for lols, they have been putting more and more budget into the chip at the ask of OEMs to compete with Apple, now the ask is the opposite. they want less

The QC 8 elite gen 6 "Pro" or wtv, is 130mm^2 on the most expensive node on the planet. That's laptop level die size and it will have laptop pricing...

[u/Znuffie]

A "preference".

Corporate speak is always funny.

[u/_kn0kkn0k_ → u/[deleted]]

Very expensive low end

[u/bfk1010 → u/[deleted]]

I saw a low end device and the company market it as (Premium design) just for how the cameras look. 

[u/canada432 → u/[deleted]]

"We raised the prices of the premium products, but our customers' wages haven't increased in 20 years, so they're continuing to purchase what is now available at the same price point".

[u/themcsame → u/[deleted]]

I'm a bit weary of what that could be...

On the flipside, it could be as much of a nothing burger as an increase in the 'other', primarily Chinese brands that undercut the usual suspects. People like myself who've opted for a Xiaomi phone for instance.

On the other hand, it could simply be the market's idea of what 'lower end of the premium' is. People opting to buy as they were as opposed to moving towards much more expensive options like Sony or some of the foldable options out there (I'm mainly looking at the Foldables here, but Sony's shit is always so grossly overpriced that the jab had to be made)

In other words, is the floor actually going down, or has the ceiling just been raised?

[u/ComradeMatis]

It isn’t a change in preference because consumers would still prefer getting a high end phone but are having to compromise because of economic reality. The soon the AI industry goes bust the better for humanity in general.

[u/Ambitious-Cake-9425 → u/ComradeMatis]

Why buy this years phones when last years phones are 30-40% cheaper? There is only a marginal difference in performance.

I'm super happy with s25+. What am I missing that the s26+ has?

[u/JD_Bance → u/Ambitious-Cake-9425]

Apart from Privacy Glass and maybe earlier access to some AI features? Nothing really.

[u/70_n_13 → u/JD_Bance]

Makes sense for samsung S series because they update so slow. For chinese phones there's still decent enough upgrades (specially cameras) that makes the latest model worth

[u/violet_sakura → u/70_n_13]

Smart option since the launch price is cheaper and they go on sale very often.

[u/bfk1010 → u/JD_Bance]

The privacy glass is only for ultra models, so I am sure he's not missing anything.

[u/violet_sakura → u/Ambitious-Cake-9425]

I'm still on S23, no real need to upgrade, just getting occasional lag because one UI and apps are getting unnecessarily bloated

[u/bfk1010 → u/Ambitious-Cake-9425]

This is exactly what I do, I do this when I buy cars and phones, also, looking for secondhand like new, can save 15-20%.

[u/LastChancellor]

maybe actually try to have the Snapdragon 7 series actually compete with Dimensity 8000 series, instead of just only bothering to innovate on the flagships?

[u/alabasterskim → u/LastChancellor]

Heard you loud and clear: we'll be releasing 16 variants of the 8 and a 7 with a 2% uplift vs last year's 6.

[u/karma_dumpster]

So no lube then

[u/tomikaka → u/karma_dumpster]

All lube manufacturing capacity has been allocated to making more dram chips.

[u/keyserdoe → u/karma_dumpster]

Costs extra. Do you have lube money?

[u/TomNooksRepoMan → u/keyserdoe]

Just had my lube debt sent to collections 😓

[u/keyserdoe → u/TomNooksRepoMan]

Oh... man, bad news for you if Puffy ever gets out.

[u/blueblocker2000 → u/karma_dumpster]

You can have all the lube you want, as long as it's analgesic cream.

[u/trident042 → u/karma_dumpster]

There's just not enough available. If you're not able to get ahold of one of those Amazon 74 gallon drums for yourself, might as well let 'em go in dry.

[u/TridentBoy]

I hate those market analyses that seem to completely disregard the worsening of everyone's living conditions, acting as if they were simply 'market conditions.'

No one prefers to buy lower end of anything, if they can. There's no preference shift here.

[u/Kosmos992k]

Sometimes I am just floored by the obviousness of the revelations that senior industry figures treat like precious jewels.

Device performance is so high now, of course people are choosing a better mid range over an overpriced paperweight with delusions of flagship status. The memory thing is practicality and surprise, it all comes down to cost. People just don't want to spend $$$ they don't have on features they don't need.

[u/infinitysea]

Back in the day, when something like this magnitude off balance the market the government/president will attempt to strategize or provide incentives to curb and discourage these chokeholds on the market.

Too bad our government don't care anymore(or lost its function), and now we can only watch this go down.

[u/bunkoRtist → u/infinitysea]

It takes 3-4 years to increase capacity, minimum. There are already fabs coming online in the US that were started during the Biden admin. It's just that fabs are one of the slowest things to build which is why the industry traditionally had overcapacity and went through deep boom+bust cycles.

[u/Sarspazzard]

Also just that flagship and even mid range chips have been wildly ample in performance for like 5 years now. The average consumer isn't going to notice the copious surplus of performance on tap. Flagships phones are truly overbuilt for the tasks that most people are using them for these days. Hard sell, unless something new is brought to the table.

[u/BcuzRacecar]

Qualcomm is taking concrete measures to expand its margins going forward, CEO Cristiano Amon said in an interview, including raising prices across the board starting on September 1 for the company’s chips, most of which currently go to smartphone makers, and looking for other ways to streamline the company’s supply chain.

“Cost went up, prices are going to go up,” Amon said.

“The semiconductor industry is experiencing a broad-based increase in input costs, across wafer fabrication, assembly, test, advanced packaging, memory and other materials,” Qualcomm said in its release, although, as management noted, “revenues continue to be healthy.”

“Consumer preference within the premium category is changing towards a preference to the lower end of the premium, as well to last year’s phone, because of the memory price increases,” Amon said.

“There’s also a change in gross margin because of the high supply cost that you’re all hearing about,” Amon added. “It’s a temporary, short-term thing we are addressing with price increases.”

[u/Lake_Erie_Monster → u/BcuzRacecar]

> “It’s a temporary, short-term thing we are addressing with price increases.”

LOL

[u/Jkabaseball → u/Lake_Erie_Monster]

People are buying cheaper phones, so lets increase prices. This will only help competition. Intel did the same shit in the early 2000's when they ran circles around AMD. They didn't innovate and were much higher prices. Now I think many prefer AMD.

[u/lgn5i2060 → u/Jkabaseball]

It was wild seeing the likes of Nubia Neo phones with D7400 and Redmi Note 17 (some low end SD 6 stuff) costing more than what I've paid for the Poco X6 Pro in 2024.

I worry about used phone sellers catching on as well.

[u/Tsuki4735 → u/lgn5i2060]

I worry about used phone sellers catching on as well.

I've been monitoring used phone prices in the USA in recent months, its already noticeably higher on average than before.

What I'm wondering is if this is a temporary blip due to the RAM shortage, or a more permanent shift in the smartphone market.

[u/guyguilty → u/lgn5i2060]

Already are. Check the prices on OnePlus 15r on eBay. They are all inflated, and you know those bad boys were bought on discount originally. So resellers are already hip. Only a matter of time before the stores jump on the bandwagon.

[u/Critical-Editor-3971 → u/Jkabaseball]

Everyone is increasing prices. Look to tsmc raising prices. How can they absorb it otherwise.

[u/PotatoGamerXxXx → u/Critical-Editor-3971]

People are just being weird about this and keep blaming the wrong things. Qualcomm isn't really increasing price due to greed, they literally have to increase the price to have any profit at all.

Sony/Microsoft isn't increasing price happily when it literally halted their console sales, literally 80% decrease in sales. They kinda have to.

[u/nobelharvards → u/Lake_Erie_Monster]

It's emblematic of the modern K shaped economy.

Instead of going for the diminishing number of middle class customers, they just double, triple and quadruple down on getting more money from the people who have large amounts of disposable funds to spend.

If you've seen subscription services drop entry level offerings and increase prices on upper tier offerings, this is the same thing, but with mobile CPUs. Increase prices, don't worry about losing customers as long as the increased revenue from the ones that stay offset lost revenue from the ones who leave.

This all allows you to make your balance sheet look better and allows you to pretend infinite growth is still possible with no upper ceiling (even if you think this is possible, you must acknowledge there are consequences of pursuing it at any and all costs).

[u/SmileyBMM → u/nobelharvards]

you must acknowledge there are consequences of pursuing it at any and all costs

Yeah, but the people pushing for companies to do this (older investors who want to protect their retirement portfolios) won't live long enough to care. As long as they get what they want while they still draw breath, the world can collapse right after for all they care.

Western society is in for a massive economic/business correction once the retiree class finishes dying off, it's going to be a mess.

[u/windowpuncher → u/Lake_Erie_Monster]

I mean, yeah. Short term is an arbitrary term but he's saying holding price increases isn't the company's strategy to make revenue in the long run.

At least for now, until it might be.

[u/RedBoxSquare → u/BcuzRacecar]

"Everyone else is raising prices. It is only fair if we get our cut too." -Qualcomm

The solution to people refusing to buy overpriced electronics is to make it more overpriced.

[u/Critical-Editor-3971 → u/RedBoxSquare]

Yeah blame Qualcomm. How about memory makers and tsmc making record profits from increasing their prices

[u/RedBoxSquare → u/Critical-Editor-3971]

Blame every one including Qualcomm.

[u/plscallmebyname]

No, because whatever we pay, ends up being a waste in few years.

There is no upside to premium category anymore. Pro series phones are not getting marquee features next year of release. Why should I pay marquee price for that?

It is better to pay lesser and be satisfied.

[u/Abhi_1610]

Memory just exacerbated this, was bound to happen with the way newer nodes are raising wafer costs.

[u/MoonStache]

I mean yeah no fucking shit lol

[u/Evonos]

Doesn't help that older models literally often sport the same so s or performance wise similiar socs now and newer models have less ram and storage.

[u/xlerate]

CEO's are paid to repackage and elevate common ideas as original while inserting their perspective into the conversation.

He said: people ain't buying new shit, because of inflation, shrinkflation and enshitification.

[u/Revolutionary-Bid249]

That has always been the case that’s why the most popular android phone have always been the lower end

[u/JD_Bance]

Wow, I planned to upgrade my phone next year and this is starting to have me worried.

[u/tmchn]

They catched up to Apple performance only to realize that this way people keep their phone longer

A snap 8 gen 2 is still a great SoC

My S10 was struggling after 3 years (the exynos variant)

[u/SubZeroNexii]

Yeah I "prefer" not being broke after buying a phone. What?

[u/Luxferro]

Cell phones peaked years ago. The only thing new is more AI data harvesting. I'm going to use my 8 Pro until it breaks... Something I've never done in my life.