The midrange phone got a new price and the same chip

Who pays when memory gets expensive, and who keeps selling the same phone under a higher sticker? Huawei has put a dollar figure on its own costs. Samsung and Google have already moved the US shelf. The handsets those two just repriced did not get a new chip.

Bloomberg reported that Richard Yu, Huawei's consumer business chief, told reporters in Shenzhen that the company's smartphone costs have risen by an average of $200. He did not say over what period. He was plain about what comes next. "We'll have to raise prices going forward, though it will be moderate," Yu said. "It's hurting our profitability very badly."

Yu also cast the shortage as a shift in Huawei's favor. He argued that demand for cheaper phones will be squeezed and that buyers will be pushed into the mid- and high-end segment, the part of the market Huawei already occupies. That is an executive describing his own incentive. It is not a sales table. Bloomberg separately reported a Counterpoint Research estimate that some 230 million smartphones priced below $200 will be wiped out by the end of this decade, and that weekly smartphone sales in China have fallen by double digits, year over year, since July. A forecast through 2030 and a slump already underway are different facts. Yu is betting they point the same direction.

Samsung's change is itemized. Hadlee Simons at Android Authority reported on October 2 that US prices on Samsung's own site had risen for four Galaxy A phones already on sale. The Galaxy A57 5G starts at $599.99, up from $549.99. The A37 5G starts at $489.99, up from $449.99. The A27 5G is $379.99, up from $349.99. The A17 5G is $269.99, up from $249.99. That last phone launched at $199.99 and had already been lifted to $249.99 in August, so the new sticker sits $70 above the launch price. Against last year's A-series opens, Android Authority put the A56 5G at $500, the A36 5G at $400, the A26 5G at $300 and the A16 5G at $200.

Google moved the same day, and has not explained it. Ben Schoon at 9to5Google reported that the Pixel 10a went from $499 to $599 for 128GB on the Google Store, with 256GB at $699, and that Amazon and Best Buy had matched the US change. The same report put the Google Store at $849 in Canada, £599 in the UK and €649 in Europe. Android Authority's Karandeep Singh Oberoi checked stored copies of those pages the same day. Canada had still shown $529 CAD at least as recently as September 22, under a $679 CAD launch price. The UK page had still shown £429 at least as recently as September 17, under a £499 launch price. Schoon treated memory costs as the obvious cause. Google has not said that. Bloomberg reported that a Google representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Schoon also noted that, when Google priced the Pixel 11 above the previous generation, the company said the increase would eventually reach "in-market Pixel phones." The 10a is that phone. It is still on the Tensor G4, which 9to5Google described as two generations back. The extra $100 is not buying a newer processor.

Android Authority's Galaxy A piece, timestamped 9:22 a.m. Eastern on October 2, told readers they were probably better off with an older phone, or with the one they already have. It wholeheartedly recommended the Pixel 10a at $500 over both the A37 5G and the A57 5G. On those figures the A57 cost $100 more than the Pixel, and the A37 was only $10 cheaper. 9to5Google's report, filed at 7:25 a.m. Pacific the same morning, already had the Google Store at $599. The comparison Android Authority printed and the price on the shelf were out of step before both stories had been up for long.

At the new US opens, the A57 5G and the base Pixel 10a meet near $600. The A37 5G undercuts the Pixel by about $110. The chip, the cameras and the years of updates did not move with the sticker; the reason to pick one over the other did. A shopper who followed the morning's "$500 Pixel" line is now looking at a different offer.

Raising the price of a phone that is already in stores is the shortest path from a component invoice to the customer. A new model can hide the same increase inside a spec change. An in-market hike cannot. Samsung and Google took the version a buyer can check on a product page. Huawei took the other route: say the bill out loud, call the coming increases moderate, and argue that the damage lands below $200, where Huawei does not need the volume.

Counterpoint's 230 million is an estimate about the end of the decade, not a count of phones pulled this quarter. Yu never dated the $200. Treating either figure as this month's invoice runs ahead of what was said. The part that is already on a receipt is smaller. In the US, a Galaxy A57 and a Pixel 10a now open at essentially one price, and neither phone is new. Memory is the cause the reporting keeps circling, and Google still has not said so.