Report: Apple aims to offset RAM inflation with bulk purchases from Samsung
Little RAM on the market – and what is available is becoming increasingly expensive: The iPhone corporation is also affected. Apple's procurement is struggling.
RAM modules, here DDR4 for installation in PCs
(Image: c't)
The current RAM price crisis also affects major manufacturers like Apple. While the company has long been known for charging high surcharges for more memory, the corporation certainly wants to at least maintain its margin – and also secure sufficient components for iPhones and the like from its suppliers. The solution is said to be larger orders from South Korean producer Samsung Electronics.
This is reported by the business newspaper Korea Economic Daily (KED), published in Seoul. According to the information, Samsung's share is expected to increase in the future. SK Hynix and Micron would be at a disadvantage – although they are already fully utilized with RAM chips for AI computers anyway.
Long-term major contracts
According to KED, Apple has already adjusted to the RAM crisis and has increased the share of Samsung production to 60 to 70 percent of all LPDDR chips used in the current iPhone 17. This figure is expected to increase "significantly" in the future and likely in the long term. For the iPhone 16, the distribution between Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix was still roughly equal.
Micron plays an increasingly minor role. However, the distribution remains speculation: Apple itself does not disclose it publicly. While the Samsung Electronics parent company was still engaged in a global patent dispute with Apple, which ended in 2018, SK Hynix had the lead.
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RAM prices more than doubled
Actually, Apple's procurement department does not like being heavily dependent on one supplier. But firstly, the corporation expects a better price from the higher purchase volume from Samsung Electronics, and secondly, SK Hynix and Micron are increasingly focusing on High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which is unsuitable for iPhones and the like. It is intended for data centers and AI accelerators. Apple also has another problem: the company always demands special specifications from its suppliers.
The LPDDR RAM in the iPhone is therefore not off-the-shelf but adapted for the corporation – also to optimize the interaction with Apple's own A-SoCs (A-series System-On-a-Chip). Estimates suggest that the price for an LPDDR5X module, which is used in the iPhone 17, may have more than doubled since the beginning of the year. Apple typically enters into multi-year supply contracts, which means the price surge should not be noticeable at first. Recently, there has been no major price increase for the current iPhones, contrary to expectations.
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(bsc)
