Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Scrambling to Secure Memory Ahead of iPhone 18 Pro Launch

So I guess the other take would be, if they actually ARE struggling to get memory, does that mean there is pressure on the manufacturers to speed processes and possibly cut corners in order to get phones out the door? Could that impact quality? Just taking the report at face value (I know, a risky thing these days!).
 
  • Like
Reactions: apple4everOG
Apple should have seen this coming having been involved in AI For several years now
Only fix for Apple is to start Manufacturing their own Ram which would still take a several
years
Hopefully Tim Cook being great at procurement in the supply chain finds an answer
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: apple4everOG and wilhoitm
I'm pretty sure a month before release Apple has the RAM sorted out. This is probably for other further in the future products.
 
Whelp here’s the deal
If people don’t get in line to buy this year’s iPhone 18 Pros / Ultra series.
They won’t have any luck getting the iPhone 20th anniversary model because there might not be enough chips to produce enough models UNLESS the iPhone Pro starts at $1999 which they know almost no one will pay that much for a regular sized iPhone Pro.
 
DBZmusicboy01 said:
Whelp here’s the deal
If people don’t get in line to buy this year’s iPhone 18 Pros / Ultra series.
They won’t have any luck getting the iPhone 20th anniversary model because there might not be enough chips to produce enough models UNLESS the iPhone Pro starts at $1999 which they know almost no one will pay that much for a regular sized iPhone Pro.
Click to expand...

Sounds like we might have to keep using our perfectly fine existing iPhones that do every single thing all iPhones have done for quite a while?
 
Spock said:
With AI sucking up all the computer components, we won't have devices to run the AI 😅
Click to expand...

That's it. That's Tim's plan: "Well, if it wasn't for AI using up all the components, we could show off some really cool AI stuff for you. Guess John will have to try again next year!"
 
NLLV said:
We are supposed to believe that a month ahead of launch they don't have 10M of these sitting in storage ready to ship?
Click to expand...

Even Apple might not know that if this rumor is reliable — it is still likely 6 weeks to when shipments start. Maybe they will have 10M of these in storage in 2 weeks.
 
GrumpyOldGuy52 said:
Right. Exactly right. Which is why the foundation of shareholding and public companies is so clearly broken and serves no one but the shareholders.
Click to expand...

That foundation has been proven to be the best at driving innovation, production efficiency, wealth generation, higher living standards, consumer choice, and lower consumer prices. It's hardly broken and nothing is perfect but it does serve others than shareholders, shareholders are simply the priority.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hans1972
jole said:
Even Apple might not know that if this rumor is reliable — it is still likely 6 weeks to when shipments start. Maybe they will have 10M of these in storage in 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

For context, the author of this rumor is the same guy that wrote MacBook Neo was based on binned chips. And Apple scrambled to put in a new order with TSMC.

The reality is, teardowns clearly showed Neo used freshly fabbed A18 Pro chips, not old binned ones.

I'd rank this rumor 2/10 in terms of credibility.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Unregistered 4U
Nekronos said:
That foundation has been proven to be the best at driving innovation, production efficiency, wealth generation, higher living standards, consumer choice, and lower consumer prices. It's hardly broken and nothing is perfect but it does serve others than shareholders, shareholders are simply the priority.
Click to expand...

No, the system is broken, and, even worse, it’s now breaking us. Just look around you—Musk, even if it was just for a few hours, was worth a trillion dollars while there are people working far more and far harder than he does who can’t afford food and gas.

Inequity is a problem. People are hurting, and this system is part of the reason. When a society is more concerned about value being returned to the elites, that society has lost its way.
 
turbineseaplane said:
Exactly my thought.

This is just the usual hype cycle to plant a thought of "constrained supply"

"Better run out and buy it on launch day or you might not get one!!!"

uh huh...
Click to expand...

Actually my first thought was more like „perhaps safer to stick with a 17 series, to avoid the risk of getting a lemon that has been assembled on the very last minute under high pressure with possibly lowered QC in order to meet volume targets“.
 
  • Like
Reactions: apple4everOG
Spock said:
With AI sucking up all the computer components, we won't have devices to run the AI 😅
Click to expand...
We only need dumb terminals for that - all the „intelligence“ is on server side. Even an old Amiga could serve for entering prompts …🤓
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spock
printlog said:
Has Tim Cookie thought about charging DRAM suppliers a 30% tax? Maybe that will create more RAM supply?
Click to expand...

Appl buys RAM from the suppliers so they can't really charge them a 'tax'. Apple pays them, not the other way around. The 'tax' in a non-normal sense that Apple puts on the memory suppliers is that Apple doesn't pass along the constant profit Apple has historically charges to pad out Apple's margins. If Apple had shared more then DRAM suppliers could have afforded to build more factories. Hence would have had more supply now. Apple took the Scrooge McDuck route and there are not extra factories being built over the last 2-3 years.

The DRAM business is very boom-bust cycle. Few how have survived more than several cycles of that are going to build new factory on a fickle whim that maybe / maybe not Apple shows up to buy stuff. What they mainly want is the boom-bust cycle smoothed out so don't loose their shirt investing in what might be a white elephant factory if there is a glut of supply.


Maybe more supply but not really different prices.

" ... In fact, as everyone is capacity constrained these days, there is little incentive for CXMT to price its DRAMs significantly below those from renowned makers. .."

The over the top mulitpatterning the Chinese vendors have to do because can't get the more modern equipment to compete means costs are likely not going to be all the much lower.

What is missing is several factories that cost multiple billions of dollars to build. In the short and intermediate term, the tax rates don't particularly matter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: printlog
deconstruct60 said:
Appl buys RAM from the suppliers so they can't really charge them a 'tax'. Apple pays them, not the other way around. The 'tax' in a non-normal sense that Apple puts on the memory suppliers is that Apple doesn't pass along the constant profit Apple has historically charges to pad out Apple's margins. If Apple had shared more then DRAM suppliers could have afforded to build more factories. Hence would have had more supply now. Apple took the Scrooge McDuck route and there are not extra factories being built over the last 2-3 years.

The DRAM business is very boom-bust cycle. Few how have survived more than several cycles of that are going to build new factory on a fickle whim that maybe / maybe not Apple shows up to buy stuff. What they mainly want is the boom-bust cycle smoothed out so don't loose their shirt investing in what might be a white elephant factory if there is a glut of supply.
Click to expand...
Why would Apple pay DRAM suppliers more than they are willing to sell for? You don't go to a car dealer and pay them $1000-$2000 more than they offer so they can build a new car factory. We had a huge RAM glut before the AI crisis and now there isn't enough of it. But if we built up factories during the glut there was no guarantee that demand would come to match production. Apple was partly responsible for less RAM demand in the past by not shipping enough RAM in its products for years and overcharging for upgrades.
 
  • Like
Reactions: apple4everOG
GrumpyOldGuy52 said:
No, the system is broken, and, even worse, it’s now breaking us. Just look around you—Musk, even if it was just for a few hours, was worth a trillion dollars while there are people working far more and far harder than he does who can’t afford food and gas.

Inequity is a problem. People are hurting, and this system is part of the reason. When a society is more concerned about value being returned to the elites, that society has lost its way.
Click to expand...
You seem to either not have read what I wrote or are simply choosing to ignore all the good things it provides. It is not broken whatsoever. Inequality has always existed, always will. Despite some of the extreme concentration of wealth that exists and the population boom the planet has seen in the last 100 years, the amount of people in poverty is lower than it ever has been and that is due in no small part to the "broken system" we have.

Society is not more concerned about value being returned to the elites, shareholders are not just elites, everyday people are also shareholders.

I can appreciate some cynicism but I believe you have an abundance so much its clouding your eyes - there is good and bad, you are choosing to ignore the good.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: GrumpyOldGuy52
Tech companies -
  1. Create consumer component/system shortage
  2. Raise prices
  3. Maintain profit
Eventually, sales will slow down, but prices won't begin to fall until that happens.
 
mozumder said:
If Apple isn't building fabs, then they're not scrambling to secure memory supplies.

There is no other option. Apple needs to build their own fabs, like 10 years ago.
Click to expand...
And if they didn't, there is no better time than to start now.

Imagine if they did this 10 years ago though, and now watching as every other company raises prices, and they get to hold steady on theirs. What a boon it would be. Instead, they are pulled along with the AI Slopfest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back