Southeast Asia’s smartphone market fell 23% year-on-year in 2Q26, with shipments dropping to 19.3 million units, the lowest quarterly level since 2014, according to new research from Omdia.
Despite the decline in unit volumes, Omdia said market value reached $6.6 billion, supported by a 31% year-on-year increase in average selling prices (ASPs) to $342.
Omdia’s analysis said vendors were split between defending shipment volumes and maintaining higher prices, with pricing moves and portfolio shifts reshaping demand across price bands.
Omdia said Samsung gained market share while raising prices, citing upward repricing of the Galaxy A07 and A17 after launch, which it said helped lift Samsung’s share of the $200–299 segment from 18% in 2Q25 to 32% in 2Q26. It also gained share across the sub-$300 market, where Omdia said some competitors reduced exposure.
According to Omdia, Xiaomi recorded a 43.5% ASP increase among the top five vendors while shipments declined 21%. Omdia attributed the shift to price increases after launch for existing models and higher launch prices for new models, while noting that Xiaomi’s sub-$100 shipments fell 69% and its $100–199 shipments grew 55%.
Omdia said TRANSSION remained heavily exposed to the entry-level market, with sub-$100 shipments down 47% in 2Q26. It said shipments in the $100–199 band grew 12%, becoming the group’s largest price band, alongside new models launched at higher prices than the devices they replaced.
Omdia said OPPO “almost entirely exited” the lowest price band, with sub-$100 shipments falling 96% in 2Q26, and said the decline was compounded by a 25% drop in $100–199 shipments, contributing to the steepest shipment decline among the top five vendors.
Omdia said vivo shifted its entry-level model above $100 in most markets, with sub-$100 shipments down 88% in 2Q26 and accounting for 5% of its total volume, compared with 32% a year earlier.
Omdia Senior Analyst Sheng Win Chow said the entry-level market was being pushed into higher price bands, but not all volume was being retained. “Much of the entry-level volume has been absorbed into the higher price bands in a domino effect,” Chow said. “When one model is repriced, vendors often need to reposition other devices within their portfolios to avoid cannibalization. However, shipments above $100 still declined 2% overall, showing that the higher price bands have not absorbed all of the displaced volume. Much of that volume has left the market altogether rather than moving upwards.”
Omdia said the $100–199 segment absorbed the largest share of remaining entry-level demand, increasing from 32% to 39% of total shipments. It attributed part of the shift to reduced discounting, arguing that historically much of the region’s sub-$100 volume came from heavy discounts on models originally launched at higher prices, but that pattern reversed in 2Q26 as vendors raised prices on new and existing models.
Looking ahead, Omdia forecast shipments in Southeast Asia would fall 25% year-on-year to 75.3 million units in 2026. Omdia Research Manager Le Xuan Chiew said rising device prices were expected to weigh on volumes through the second half of the year, with larger declines anticipated in markets more exposed to entry-level devices and open-market retail channels, including Indonesia and the Philippines.
Le said memory costs would be a further pressure point. “Memory cost pressure will intensify in the second half of the year. Devices shipped in 1H26 reflect memory costs based on a blended average of earlier purchases rather than current market prices. This means current margins do not yet reflect the increase in memory costs. As lower-cost inventory is depleted, vendors will face the full impact of today’s higher memory prices,” Le said.
