Huawei begins to counter the trend by expanding with "thousand-yuan phones"
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Author | Huang Yu
Driven by the rising prices of storage chips, the mid- and low-end mobile phone market is about to undergo a major reshuffle.
On March 23rd, at Huawei’s Spring All-Scenario New Product Launch, the Huawei Enjoy 90 series, such "budget phones," unprecedentedly became the main highlight.
The entire Huawei Enjoy 90 series is equipped with the Kirin 8 series processor and comes pre-installed with HarmonyOS 6. This signifies that while the Enjoy series returns to 5G, it also features Pure-Blood HarmonyOS for the first time.
Since Huawei launched the "Pioneer Plan" with the Mate 60 in 2023, Huawei was first to bring mid-to-high-end phones back to 5G and Kirin chips. Now, with the debut of the Enjoy 90 series, He Gang, CEO of Huawei Terminal BG, officially announced at the event: "Huawei phones have finally achieved a complete return."
Wallstreetcn has learned from informed sources that over the past few years, after Huawei's mid-to-high-end phones returned to the market, this year Huawei will also make efforts in the low-end segment by equipping phones with HarmonyOS and Kirin chips, plus 5G speed, to grab more market share at the lower end.
Compared with the Huawei Enjoy 80 series, the 90 series adds a Pro Max version. With the same configuration, the price only rises by about 100-200 yuan, starting at 1299 yuan, which is noticeably less than recent price increases by other manufacturers.
When Huawei shifted its focus back to the sinking phone market, a brutal clearing-out battle for stock has kicked off in the entire mobile phone industry.
The Assault of Budget Phones
As one of the main phone models Huawei is focusing on this year, the Enjoy 90 series brings highly sincere configurations, thoroughly bidding farewell to the compromise status of previous years.
It’s worth knowing that the Enjoy series was born in 2015 with Enjoy 5 and Enjoy 5S, targeting the budget market. In October 2018, Huawei launched the Enjoy 9 Plus, bringing the Kirin 710 into the Enjoy series for the first time.
However, after 2019 due to sanctions, Huawei was restricted in 5G, chips, and production capacity, so its phones could only use 4G chips for a time.
With the "light boat has passed ten thousand mountains" BGM, in the second half of 2023, Huawei's pre-sale Mate 60 5G series and foldable Mate X5 fired the first shot for its market comeback.
For a period after this, supply chain capacity was still climbing, and Kirin chips were prioritized for Mate and Pura high-end models, so chips for Enjoy and other low-end models were mainly 4G.
This time, the Enjoy 90 series is fully equipped with Kirin 8 series 5G processors: the Pro Max and Plus versions use the Kirin 8000, while the Enjoy 90 uses the Kirin 8000A. Compared with last generation's Enjoy 80 series's Kirin 710A and Snapdragon 4Gen2 chips, this is a huge performance leap.
From the Mate, Pura, nova, and now the Enjoy series, Huawei has finally filled in the last piece, completing a full-price-range, high-powered comeback.
When it comes to price, the Enjoy 90 series shows powerful market aggressiveness.
Starting prices: Enjoy 90—1299 yuan; Enjoy 90 Plus—1499 yuan; Enjoy 90 Pro Max—1699 yuan (the first Pro Max model in the series), and even the highest configuration 512GB version is just 2399 yuan. Compared with similarly configured previous generations, the price increase in the Enjoy 90 series is limited to 100-200 yuan.
In the current industry environment, it's not easy for Huawei to keep such a tiny price fluctuation.
According to Counterpoint Research, rising DRAM (memory) prices have increased the BoM costs of low-, mid-, and high-end smartphones by about 25%, 15%, and 10% respectively. It's expected that by Q2 2026, the average cost impact will stay at 10%-15%.
Facing soaring prices for storage chips and other materials, other manufacturers have had to raise prices out of necessity.
Recently, price increases for OPPO, vivo, etc. have materialized. Overall, price increases for low-end phones are 200-500 yuan, while new high-end models are up about 1000 yuan.
Xiaomi president Lu Weibing bluntly said: "I really understand our competitors' price rises; it's tough for everyone, and it hurts for us too."
With the whole industry suffering from storage price hikes, and forced to pass costs to consumers, why can the Huawei Enjoy series keep pricing relatively restrained?
Counterpoint senior analyst Ivan Lam told Wallstreetcn that Huawei has done the most thorough job in domesticating its supply chain. Though memory supply shortages and price hikes did impact Huawei somewhat, its supply of Kirin low-end phone chips has stabilized, giving Huawei more flexibility in cost control and pricing strategies.
Giants Strike Back
Since 2023, Huawei has been regaining market share step by step.
IDC reports that in 2025, Huawei’s market share in shipments of smartphones in China hit 16.4%, ranking first. This is the first time since 2020 that Huawei phones have returned to the top spot in China for the full year.
Even so, it's still tough for Huawei to reclaim its market position from six years ago.
IDC data shows that Huawei's global smartphone shipments peaked at 240 million units in 2019, with nearly half from overseas markets.
In China, Huawei shipped 140 million units, gaining a 38.5% market share—more than double second-place OPPO.
Currently, Huawei, with 16.4% market share, is back on top, but the difference between major brands is not big; last year Apple, vivo, Xiaomi, and OPPO had shares of 16.2%, 16.2%, 15.4%, and 15.2% respectively.
For Huawei to regain its lost market share, it's clearly more than just resuming normal product updates; it needs to find new growth points to fill the gap left after spinning off Honor.
It's important to note that Honor, Huawei’s mid- and low-end brand, once accounted for about 40% of Huawei’s total sales.
Now, most of Huawei’s chances may lie in the turbulent mid- and low-end market.
Sources close to Huawei reveal that, against the background of rising memory prices and competitors adjusting prices, Huawei hopes to cover more users by focusing on the mid- and low-end market.
Ivan Lam also pointed out to Wallstreetcn: currently, Huawei holds a relatively stable share in the high-end market, and the launch of its budget phones shows a clear intent to pursue more sales and market share.
With the global smartphone competition entering the second half, the market has long shifted from growth to inventory.
The industry is highly concentrated and fiercely competitive. IDC data for 2025 shows the top five smartphone manufacturers' market share in China rose from last year's 79.1% to 79.4%, boosting concentration.
Last year, Honor unfortunately fell out of the top five and became “Others”; this year Asus and Meizu exited the mobile market, and many brands chose strategic retreat—leaving less room for small manufacturers to survive.
Counterpoint Research senior analyst Yang Wang pointed out that at lower price segments, there's limited space to raise prices, and if costs can't be fully passed on, OEMs may adjust product strategies. The market has recently seen some low-SKU models' shipments shrink.
In other words, the cost ratio of storage chips is naturally higher in mid- and low-end phones, so they face greater cost pressure from storage chip price hikes.
In times of industry clearing and competitors struggling with costs, Huawei is undoubtedly at an opportune moment to go after sales and market share in sinking markets.
Like Huawei, Apple is also trying to grab more market share via high value-for-money models. Not long ago, Apple launched iPhone 17e, raising the base storage from 128GB to 256GB, while keeping the starting price at 4,499 yuan.
Such "dimensionality reduction attack" is undoubtedly huge pressure on other domestic brands stuck in the middle.
When top players are willing to sacrifice some single-machine profit, use lower prices and stronger ecosystems to compete for sinking market share, manufacturers already trapped by rising component prices are squeezed even further for survival space.
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