Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has announced that surging memory chip costs are significantly increasing production expenses, leading to higher prices for its new devices and prompting the company to address consumer feedback.
Lu Weibing, Xiaomi’s President, stated on social media platform Weibo that “price pressure” is impacting the cost of new products, noting that memory chip expenses have exceeded earlier estimates and could continue to rise.
The Redmi K90 smartphone series, launched recently, has already seen price adjustments reflecting these increased costs.
The base model of the Redmi K90, featuring 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage, debuted at 2,599 Chinese Yuan (approximately $358). This is an increase from its predecessor, the K80, which launched at 2,499 Chinese Yuan (approximately $345).
Lu acknowledged consumer disappointment regarding the price differences across various K90 specifications.
In response, Xiaomi plans to reduce the price of the Redmi K90 model with 12 gigabytes of RAM and 512 gigabytes of storage by 300 Chinese Yuan (approximately $41).
This reduction will bring the price of that specific variant down to 2,899 Chinese Yuan (approximately $400) for the first month of sales.
The Redmi K90 was officially introduced on October 23.