It’s the year of smartphone price hikes

今年是智能手机涨价之年

Apple, Google, and Samsung’s new phones have two things in common: they include a foldable and they cost more. 苹果、谷歌和三星的新款手机有两个共同点：它们都包含折叠屏机型，且价格更高。

Paying more for a new phone seems almost unavoidable after Apple’s event today. The new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max start at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively — a $100 price hike over their predecessors. You can’t dodge the price hike by opting for an older iPhone, either, because Apple raised prices on those by $100, too. And it’s not just Apple. This year, the $100 price hike has been a trend across the industry. 在苹果今天的发布会之后，购买新手机似乎不可避免地要多花钱。新款 iPhone 18 Pro 和 Pro Max 的起售价分别为 1199 美元和 1299 美元，比前代产品上涨了 100 美元。你也没法通过选择旧款 iPhone 来避开涨价，因为苹果也将旧机型的价格上调了 100 美元。而且不仅仅是苹果，今年 100 美元的涨价幅度已成为整个行业的趋势。

Google and Samsung followed the same formula as Apple when they each launched new phones over the past few months. The Pixel 11 starts at $899, up from $799 for last year’s Pixel 10. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launched at $2,099, $100 more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 it replaced. 谷歌和三星在过去几个月推出新手机时，也遵循了与苹果相同的策略。Pixel 11 的起售价为 899 美元，高于去年 Pixel 10 的 799 美元。Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra 的发布价格为 2099 美元，比它所取代的 Galaxy Z Fold 7 贵了 100 美元。

You could try looking for a phone from a brand outside the big three, but the price hikes persist there, too. Sony’s new Xperia 10 VIII costs £150 more, and this year’s Moto Razr phones also cost $100 more than their predecessors, each offering little to no significant upgrades to go with their higher prices. Smartphone sales data shows that the market for phones under $100 may be on its way to completely disappearing. 你或许可以尝试寻找这三大品牌之外的手机，但涨价现象同样存在。索尼新款 Xperia 10 VIII 价格上涨了 150 英镑，今年的 Moto Razr 手机也比前代贵了 100 美元，且这些机型在涨价的同时几乎没有提供任何显著的升级。智能手机销售数据显示，100 美元以下的手机市场可能正走向彻底消失。

The price hikes stem from ongoing component shortages, driven by AI data center build outs, that could last years and aren’t showing any signs of letting up. RAM price hikes have been among the most severe. Nothing CEO Carl Pei said earlier this year that memory costs for the Nothing Phone 4A had doubled by the time it launched. Nearly every component that goes into new phones, and other tech, is also getting pricier. Qualcomm, which makes the processors that power many new phones, raised prices on its chips earlier this month. 此次涨价源于人工智能数据中心建设所导致的持续性零部件短缺，这种情况可能会持续数年，且目前没有任何缓解迹象。内存（RAM）价格的上涨尤为严重。Nothing 公司首席执行官 Carl Pei 今年早些时候曾表示，Nothing Phone 4A 在发布时，其内存成本已经翻了一番。几乎所有用于新手机及其他科技产品的零部件都在涨价。为许多新手机提供处理器的高通公司，也在本月初上调了芯片价格。

Apple was fashionably late to raise its phone prices, like it was late to launch a foldable, potentially signaling that both trends are here to stay. 苹果在提高手机价格方面“姗姗来迟”，就像它在推出折叠屏手机时一样，这可能预示着这两种趋势都将长期存在。