Ming-Chi Kuo reports that as the shortages in DRAM affect big manufacturers like Apple, they will remain to attempt to keep the prices for their iPhone 18 steady even after paying more money for the components.
Apple is in talks for memory prices with their suppliers, with increases in price expected in the Q2 of this year. As the memory cost goes higher, the gross margins for the iPhone will be hit, but the company is in a place to make deals for a steady supply of components capable of absorbing the increase.
Other components could also face shortages in the future, resulting in bigger issues in the supply chain leading to higher costs. The shortage that NAND and LPDDR are facing are due to AI industry demand, with chip manufacturers putting AI servers’ advanced memory first over smartphones. It’s also speculated that increased memory costs may also lead to higher costs of smartphones across different manufacturers.
