diego.caraballo
macrumors 6502a
A billion dollars in A20 processors could seem a lot, but if they really cost $280, then is about 3.5M of processors.
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Apple Scrambling to Secure Memory Ahead of iPhone 18 Pro Launch
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Hardly carrying water. In any case, Apple is a for profit entity, that considers shareholders above all others in its decisions, it doesn't exist to hold your hand or ignore inflationary factors so you pay less.
Apple is a consumer product company in a premium segment, no one is forcing you to buy said products at any given price point.
Apple didn't become a high market cap company but eating costs and trying to keep prices low. Apple has been absorbing rising costs for years. Furthermore, the stranglehold its had on suppliers has weakened significantly.
If Apple hadn't had the upper hand over suppliers like it has for a number of years, prices would have likely risen more slowly over a longer horizon with suppliers able to charge more and therefore invest more back into their business supporting more production capacity.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
kiranmk2
macrumors 68020
Where does it say there aren't 10m completed devices ready for launch? I can well believe Apple have enough fully packaged chips for the launch and first few weeks, but beyond that I can well imagine that RAM supplies are drying up rapidly and Apple have millions more A20 compute/GPU dies complete, they are struggling to get hold of RAM for all of them.
Quite literally the point of any public company is to maximize value to shareholders, always been the case.
People seem to forget the economy has been quite strong over the last several decades outside of the 2008 crash and covid, out of which covid and the following years have been most impactful on businesses, workers and the average consumer - the global supply chain was especially impacted.
We've been living in an overly consumer focused society for the past several decades, enjoying largely falling prices for many goods due to the build cheap, sell cheap and replace consumer mindset. Despite these recent sharply rising costs, computers today are still substantially cheaper than they were 30 years ago.
ErneX
macrumors regular
I’ve seen other companies raise prices multiple times due to this situation before Apple raised them for the 1st time.
Or were you expecting them to not raise prices even longer? I don’t think this is going to ease before 2028 and who knows if even longer.
Definitely think that the initial inventory of iPhone 18 Pro series is ready. Expecting only the usual shipping timeframes once the devices launch, except for the foldable. As for pricing, expecting a minimum of $200 increase compared to 17 Pro/Pro Max. Was expecting iPhone fold to start at $1999 but not sure anymore, maybe it will start at $2199.
Don't blame AI don't even blame company who make dram blame Apple have some money but never build own fab.
Robert.Walter
macrumors 68040
Highly doubtful.
If this sis the situation, and long term contracts are not long ago finalized, some people would be getting sacked.
If this sis the situation, and long term contracts are not long ago finalized, some people would be getting sacked.
Hajj.david
macrumors 6502a
They are not mutually exclusive. It can be both a master plan by the elites and executed by its puppets (like Apple)
JPack
macrumors P6
Some people probably think the MacBook Air and Mac mini shortage are fake too.
AI hyperscaler capex is $800B to $1T this year. That money is outbidding Apple at every turn.
AI hyperscaler capex is $800B to $1T this year. That money is outbidding Apple at every turn.
‘So we’re launching the new phones next month.
Did you get enough ram ?’
‘Oh no, I knew I forgot something…’
Did you get enough ram ?’
‘Oh no, I knew I forgot something…’
Likely closer to less than half that. $70-100. But 10-14M is still a relatively smallish fraction if looking to sell 45M per quarter ( about 180M/year. ). If that is closer to 20M ready and 14M waiting then finished more than what is still in the backlog. But it is a troubling gap.
Unless there is some huge bubble change in RAM/packaging availability though that is basically a backlog there won't disappear for many quarters. ( or perhaps even until shift to next get iPhone Pro).
bLackjackj
macrumors 65816
So Tim Cook,..the king of the supply chain - fails yet again! I really wish he would actually depart the business.
Why on earth did they leave manufacturing so late this year? I would have assumed given the shortage, they would have started much earlier.
Why on earth did they leave manufacturing so late this year? I would have assumed given the shortage, they would have started much earlier.
lotzosushi
macrumors 6502
While I doubt there's going to be a shortage in the near future for the iPhone, I wouldn't put it past Samsung's petty and predatory business tactics to purposely provide less and charge higher prices to Apple as their biggest competitor.
Apple never needed to build their own fab. What they should have done is not low-ball the DRAM manufacturers on price to the extent that they would sell out to anyone with more money.
Almost a year ago OpenAI when in offered to pay more money over a long period of time.
"... Both Samsung and SK Hynix confirmed that OpenAI's anticipated demand could grow to 900,000 DRAM wafers monthly, which is an incredible volume that may represent around 40% of total DRAM output. ..."
OpenAI's Stargate project to consume up to 40% of global DRAM output — inks deal with Samsung and SK hynix to the tune of up to 900,000 wafers per month
Working at scale.
Meanwhile Apple was in 'Scrooge McDuck' mode trying to leverage the lowest possible prices out of the vendors ( while charging higher prices to customers. Goosing the prices lower was to protect Apple's margins; not pass along savings to customers. At best it is offset higher complement components (screen, processor, etc) costs by lowering the RAM costs. The customer system price stays the same , but mainly it is Apple's margins that are protected. )
The DRAM market has historically gone through boom-bust cycles. Covid was a bit of a boom as which devices were consuming RAM changed quickly. But as production stabilized and products returned there was a bit of a bust. Apple was so busy trying to maximize their upside to the bust , that the ignored all the indicators that some very different was coming. Hence got caught running the exactly the wrong strategy.
Apple wasn't going to build their own fab because they were too preoccupied with goosing the Apple corp stock price higher. Fabs costs way more money than what they pay Micron/Samsung/SKHynix. If they didn't want to pay a reasonable cost for the long term health of their suppliers why would they take the whole , higher cost onto themselves? Apple designs things, they don't make much at all.
Apple is being outbid. Samsung is going to sell to folks who pay more. That isn't predatory.
According to the thread's initial posting.
"... Culpan reports. Apple leans heavily on Micron for the memory but also buys from SK Hynix and Samsung. ..."
Samsung Display and electronics are completely companies than Samsung phone. It is a conglomerate so the parent corporation owns both but one company screwing itself (lower , steady customer product purchasing) really doesn't help that 'divisions' bottom line at all.
The tactics of Apple pushing a strategy of they will pull they volume and take it elsewhere is an impediment to DRAM makers doing very long term investment. If Apple flakes and leaves then they are left with a factory with not enough volume.
If Apple had signed 2-4 year long term contracts they would have supply. They didn't. It has turned into a game of 'music chairs' where if don't buy a seat may not get one when the next short term contract 'spin' happens, Apple got asleep at the wheel. RAM consumption by the AI sector has been a raising uptick for several years. It has exploded in the last 12-16 months, but it didn't come out of no where.
OpenAI and others are out there spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave after a 3 month cruise. Apple is used to being the gaint who brow beats the DRAM supplier into doing what they want. They lost that leverage. And pretty slow to releaize that they lost it also.
They never announced that there will be a launch. It's all rumors and based on historic pattern.