What spec sheets will the best iPhone and the best Android phones carry along in the near future? And, of course, will they cost an arm and a leg?
These are the important questions. For example, if we knew that certain components would get slapped with 300%+ price hikes soon, it would be wiser to buy a phone today and not tomorrow. Stonks.
Such essential questions are always difficult. But fret not. It's good to know that we don't have to bother ourselves with this hypothetical future, as it's already here.
What used to cost ~$75 now costs ~$330 and that's that!
Inverted stuff
Digital Chat Station is among the most popular and always informative tipsters out there. It's not clear whether it's a he or a she—and whether it's a single person or several that run the account—but the rumors with the Digital Chat Station stamp on them are bankable.
Now, the tipster has a fascinating (as in: eye-watering) observation to share.
"I've never seen anything like it", DCS says and adds, "the prices of memory and SoC are actually inverted". SoC is another term for a chipset—your phone's brain, the most sophisticated and important component.
The iPhone 18 Pro is the next big thing on the horizon:
Digital Chat Station is most likely located in China; that's why their posts include the yuan currency. But we'll directly convert that for you to get the big picture.
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Per DCS, the current price for RAM and storage chip combo is approximately 2200 yuan, or ~$330. The same combo last year was 500 yuan, or ~$75. Quite the difference, right?
In terms of chipsets, DCS says "the latest generation flagship chip" is ~2000 yuan, or about $300. Last year, it was ~$220.
Do you feel lucky? | Image by Weibo
Yes, things are indeed different.
By Odin's beard, why?
The AI slop we're consuming every day could be blamed for this.
This and the AI tech boom: big players, even governments, are obsessed with building data centers and AI projects. They need RAM and storage chips and we're the ones paying for this, as no company is willing to absorb higher prices without passing the buck to the end user.
12 GB as the RAM roof
Prior DCS posts claim that surging memory prices will force smartphone makers to scale back RAM configurations, with some upcoming flagships reportedly returning to 12 GB as the standard and topping out at 12 GB + 1 TB.
Even though newer Snapdragon platforms support up to 24 GB of RAM, manufacturers are reportedly abandoning such high-capacity configurations because of the cost.
What would be a fair price for the iPhone 18 Pro?
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$90
$210
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Sebastian is one of PhoneArena’s senior opinionators. A veteran news writer with almost 20 years of experience in media and technology, he not only covers all the hot news about Galaxies and iPhones, but often provides hot takes on industry trends. He’s fascinated with camera-focused flagships from the likes of Oppo and Vivo, as well as foldable phones.
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