Your next iPhone will depend even more on Samsung’s memory

Samsung has long been among the key parts of the iPhone supply chain, but its role may become even bigger. Apple is reportedly going to increase its reliance on the Korean company amidst the memory price surge.

Apple will source even more memory from Samsung

Samsung will supply an even bigger part of the memory Apple needs for iPhone production, according to The Korea Economic Daily report (translated source). Eventually, Apple will source roughly 60% to 70% of the low-power DRAM used for the iPhone 17 from Samsung.

In previous generations, SK Hynix had a larger share of the supplied memory, while Micron participated as a smaller supplier. That balance is changing due to the unusual dynamics in the global memory market.

Industry sources report that SK Hynix and Micron are redirecting production towards high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is used in data center hardware and is in high demand due to the AI boom. As a result, the production capacity for LPDDR, used in mobile devices including the iPhone, has become constrained.



Unlike its competitors, Samsung has continued production of general-purpose and mobile DRAM, which would allow it to meet Apple’s requirements. Reportedly, the Korean company is currently the only one that can meet Apple’s conditions.

Apple’s challenges

Apple’s hardware, including the latest A19 and A19 Pro chips, is reportedly very sensitive to momentary voltage spikes. That adds extra pressure on memory suppliers to deliver high-quality components at large volumes.

A 12 GB LPDDR5X memory module, like the ones used in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro, used to cost around $30 at the beginning of this year. Now, the same component costs roughly $70, which will likely affect smartphone prices next year.

Apple is in a better position than other manufacturers due to its scale and its practice of negotiating multi-year supply agreements. Those keep the company better protected from temporary price volatility. Concentrating more of its orders with Samsung will give Apple more predictable deliveries, and it could help it get lower prices amidst the overall component cost rise.

Protect the margins

I don’t think any iPhone user is particularly worried about who manufactured what component of their device. What’s more important is the end price, and if Apple manages not to raise the iPhone price next year, it’ll be a huge win. I doubt that will be the case, but one can only hope.

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