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Report: iPhone Memory Costs Set to Quadruple by 2027

It is amazing how humanity is letting something that adds no value to anything other than the valuation of some AI companies to destroy so much. AI is essentially an energy wasting bag of parlor tricks that devalues many of humankind’s accomplishments with cheap slop, and even the most valuable stuff that AI can do needs to be double or triple checked by a human to make sure it even is worthwhile. AI is not intelligent. It is advanced pattern matching added to technology that can trick humans into believing they are communicating with a being. This won’t end well. None of this garbage is real. Basically we are letting rich out of touch antisocial sociopath computer nerds put an exclamation point on the overall disdain that they feel for humanity.
 
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MRSugarD said:
This year they will keep prices the same I assume. A potential huge price hike may come next year for the 20th anniversary model where Apple can raise the price justifying it with a completely new generation of design etc. Just like in 2017 with the introduction of the X.
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Yep this makes sense. The iPhone 8 was only $699 at launch. $999 for the iPhone X in 2017 was huge. And largely iPhones have cost around $999 since then even with 10 years of inflation.
 
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oMc said:
I felt a bit bad when upgrading from my 15 Plus to the 17 Pro, because my 15 Plus was still working very well. Now, I’m starting to think maybe it was a good move to get a Pro model before the RAM apocalypse.
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17 Pro was definitely the one to get for a lot of reasons. And I assume that phone either went to good use or got you a lot of the way toward paying for the new phone, so definitely a good call.
 
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MacRumors said:
The principal reason is the heavily subsidized AI build-out that's underway.
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In other words, U.S. workers are paying taxes in order to heavily subsidize AI corporations so those same AI corporations can buy up much of the world’s RAM supply, which raises RAM-containing electronics costs for those same U.S. workers.

I won’t say more in this post because I respect the rules of this forum and don’t want to say anything political in any of the non-political sections of the forum. I kindly request that this thread is moved to the “Political News” section of the forum.
 
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First of all: thanks for nothing to the whole Artificial Intelligence phenomenon, an invention that’s not exactly going to bring us well-being (are we going to work fewer days a week for the same salary?).


Secondly, Apple is in an extraordinary position to navigate this situation: wide margins to absorb costs and a highly optimized ecosystem capable of performing well with less RAM.


For a few years, developers will have to get creative to optimize their applications, and that brings back a bit of the ’90s spirit, which isn’t a bad thing either.

And Third, Apple needs to enter on the manufacture market
 
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McWetty said:
I guess iPhone 18 pro will be a supercycle if people FOMO into the idea that iPhone 19 pro will be $200 more expensive. I’m due for an upgrade anyway, but I can see others forcing an upgrade to avoid a possible price hike. It happened with GPUs in 2025.
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Doubt it. iPhone 16 was a supercycle due to tariff fears. iPhone 17 was a supercycle due to new redesign.

I think people are supercycled out until the 20th anniversary release.
 
McWetty said:
I guess iPhone 18 pro will be a supercycle if people FOMO into the idea that iPhone 19 pro will be $200 more expensive. I’m due for an upgrade anyway, but I can see others forcing an upgrade to avoid a possible price hike. It happened with GPUs in 2025.
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This year is the "super-cycle". New design for the Pro, meaningful spec jump for the base model. I would say that most smartphone buyers are pretty content just buying the phone that fits their budget, regardless of how much RAM it has.
 
atomwork said:
So with 90-100 Billion in profit each year Apple can't or won't build their own RAM factory? But Tesla/SpaceX can build a state of the art Fab Chip factory in Texas?
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"RAM factories" take a long time to build and need high amount of investment.

There is absolutely no reason to plan to build a new "RAM" fab now, if the AI bubble pops within 5 years, as then there will be less demand for RAM ( or rather, it will go back to Pre_AI-medness levels of demand) by the time your fab is ready to start producing RAM chips.

This is the reason why RAM manufacturers are not investing heavily in increasing their capacity: the heightened demand may not last for long enough for this to be justifiable.
 
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Unless Apple puts 12GB to 16GB in the next Neo, I will be good with the Apple products I have for the next 4 or 5 years. My view is that any device Apple wants to sell me that has AI/Siri capabilities should have at least 12GB of memory. Apple should get a clear understanding that there are people who will never buy a MacBook Pro or Air but will still want the Neo as a low-level AI device for daily home and school use.
 
TwoBytes said:
So this is all just reason to pass the costs onto us as consumers for price increases 🙁
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For those who buy every year to have the latest and greatest, or first-time buyers, then yes, that cost is being passed on. For the rest of us who hold onto devices for a number of years...we are good to go. 🙂
 
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FatLouie said:
For those who buy every year to have the latest and greatest, or first-time buyers, then yes, that cost is being passed on. For the rest of us who hold onto devices for a number of years...we are good to go. 🙂
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it's still a delayed cost sadly 🙁
 
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TwoBytes said:
So this is all just reason to pass the costs onto us as consumers for price increases 🙁
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LOL! You mean take cost increase in memory, multiply it by 10, and pass that onto us consumers. If you don't think greedy profit in this state of emergency doesn't exist then I got a bridge to sell you.

You notice the cost of NAND or RAM chips isn't ever disclosed? They don't want us doing the math as to why $80 increase in RAM equals a $400 list price increase.
 
drunkaviator said:
Nothing to feel bad about, in hindsight a great decision. The 17 Pro is the first iPhone that really fills me with confidence about its longevity, especially given the excellent battery life, the whole package generally feels very complete and mature. My battery is holding at 100% after 156 cycles too.
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I too have 100% battery life [at 153 cycles] on the 17Pro to which I upgraded from the much enjoyed 15 Pro. Doubt I will rush into bumped up prices on later models for a while.
 
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As just a reminder, when this sort of thing happens additional capacity is created to meet demand, obviously. Maybe these fab shops are really expensive and hard to cobble together? Otherwise, it will taper off by the end mid next year I would think.

Shortages. Recently happened with used cars, and new cars, and it was a very bad time to need one (trust me, I know).
 
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I think if anyone is in control of their memory costs it's Apple. This memory craziness is going to result in very cheap memory in about 5 years.
 
What a scam, just like the gas situation. Completely fake and to load their pocket books. Consumers eat it up and actually defend it as well. Corporate shills…. 🙂‍↔️👎
 
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