The global mobile phone industry is witnessing a flurry of updates on Tuesday, with OPPO’s global launch of its flagship foldable phone Find N6, a widespread price increase across major brands driven by soaring memory chip costs, and a consequent boom in the mobile phone recycling industry.

OPPO officially launched its latest foldable flagship Find N6 globally at 19:00 Beijing time on March 17 at its Binhai Bay Campus in Dongguan, China. Coinciding with the launch, a large-scale price hike is sweeping the mobile phone industry, triggered by a sharp surge in memory chip prices. Since March 16, OPPO and OnePlus have raised prices of some models by 200 to 500 yuan, while vivo and iQOO are set to follow suit from March 18, with an expected price increase of 500 to 1,000 yuan for models like the X300 series. Counterpoint Research predicts that the average price of new mobile phones in China will rise by 15% to 25% compared with 2025, as DRAM and NAND flash prices have soared to record highs, with some DDR4 8Gb chips jumping by 369% since 2025 due to booming demand from AI serversthickspace.

This industry upheaval has brought unexpected opportunities to the mobile phone recycling sector. As new phone prices rise and memory chips become scarce, used mobile phones have gained renewed value, with their recycled components serving as an alternative supply for low-end electronic products. Recyclers in Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei revealed that the recycling price of old phones has doubled or tripled since September 2025, with even obsolete models like the OPPO R9 seeing their recycling price rise from 60 yuan to 125 yuan. High-memory old phones are particularly sought-after due to the high value of their detachable storage components.

The recycling industry is also benefiting from policy support and market demand. On March 1, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment implemented a new technical standard for the treatment of waste electrical and electronic products, bringing mobile phones and other devices under stricter regulation and promoting the standardized development of the recycling industry. Meanwhile, major recycling platforms like Aihuishou are seeing robust growth, with its total revenue rising 29% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2025, as more consumers turn to trade-ins and second-hand phones amid new phone price hikes. The GSMA estimates that there are over 5 billion inactive mobile phones globally, highlighting huge potential for the recycling and reuse market.