Seoul, Jan. 6 -- Ahead of the Galaxy S26 launch scheduled for next month, Samsung Electronics signaled that price increases for its upcoming flagship smartphones may be unavoidable as global semiconductor costs surge and internal divisions face mounting margin pressure.

Speaking to global media ahead of the CES 2026 trade show in Las Vegas, Samsung's co-CEO and mobile business chief, Roh Tae-moon, stated that the current environment is "unprecedented" and warned that "smartphone price adjustments may be necessary" due to soaring chip costs.

The mobile industry faces a harsh pricing situation in memory driven by an industrywide supply crunch. According to a report by The Korea Herald, the price of general-purpose DRAM--8Gb DDR4--rose fro...