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

Samsung's U.S. Price Increases Add to Concerns About Rising Apple Device Costs

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster


Samsung raised the prices of several of its smartphones and tablets in the United States overnight, likely due to increasing costs caused by ongoing memory shortages.

galaxy-fold-7-orange.jpeg

As shared by PhoneArena, the 512GB Galaxy Z Flip increased by $80 from $1,219.99 to $1,299.99, while the S25 Edge and S25 FE went up $80 and $40, respectively. Samsung did not increase the cost of its current-generation S26 smartphones because those were priced higher than the prior-generation models from launch, but the company did also increase the cost of the 512GB and 1TB Galaxy Z Fold 7 earlier this month.

Samsung's tablet prices increased for the full U.S. lineup, including the latest Galaxy Tab S11 and the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra models. The base models are $100 more expensive at $900 for the S11 and $1,299 for the S11 Ultra, while higher-end models went up even more. The 1TB S11 Ultra is now $1,899.99, which is a $280 increase.

Samsung didn't comment on the price increase, but the quiet price hike suggests that Samsung is going to need to charge more for upcoming devices that are coming out later this year.

As a major smartphone manufacturer, Samsung has not been able to weather rising costs without raising prices, and that could be a sign that Apple's upcoming devices could also be more expensive than they would have been without hardware shortages.

The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models that came out earlier this year are more expensive than their predecessors, though Apple increased storage to justify the price hike.

Apple already removed the 512GB RAM upgrade for the Mac Studio, and started charging $400 more for the 256GB RAM upgrade. Apple also recently stopped accepting orders for some Mac Studio and Mac mini configurations with higher amounts of RAM. For machines still in stock, shipping times are extraordinarily high.

Hardware makers like Apple are dealing with high demand for memory and storage, which has been caused by demand from artificial intelligence data centers. Manufacturers are prioritizing AI chip production over chips designed for consumer products because large data center contracts are more profitable. Chipmakers like Samsung, TSMC, and SK Hynix are unable to keep up with demand even while operating at full capacity, and the lack of supply mixed with rising demand has led to price hikes.

During Apple's January earnings call, Tim Cook said that memory costs didn't impact the company's gross margin in the first fiscal quarter of the year, but would have a "bit more of an impact" during the second fiscal quarter. Apple is set to hold its Q2 earnings call on April 30.

Cook said that Apple is looking at a "range of options" to deal with rising prices over the long term if needed, and Apple is seeking supplier price cuts in other areas to offset the increase. Apple apparently agreed to pay Samsung twice as much for LPDDR5X memory chips for ongoing iPhone 17 production.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in January that he expects Apple to keep iPhone 18 starting prices flat despite having to pay more for components. He said Apple could absorb the costs to gain market share, and make up some of the money on its services side. Apple plans to launch a new foldable iPhone this year, and its rumored $2,000+ price tag could also pad Apple's margins.

Apple has been planning M5 updates for the Mac Studio and the Mac mini, and it is unknown how the memory shortages and long shipping times for current machines will impact those plans.

Article Link: Samsung's U.S. Price Increases Add to Concerns About Rising Apple Device Costs
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/04/14/samsung-us-price-increase/
  • Angry
Reactions: Z-4195
I feel like the M5 minis and studios are planned for release at dub dub but open claw demand upended their inventory planning.

I don’t think anything else is still on M4 so Apple probably doesn’t want to do another run of M4 chips. Instead they will go out of stock until the M5 release.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DribbleCastle
Weird. The Fold 7 actually got like 300€ cheaper here in Germany since launch and the 512 GB costs less than the 256 GB one used to cost
 
  • Like
Reactions: Digital Dude
Probably no overt price increases for Apple, but RAM and storage freezes across the board.

iPhone 18 = 8/256
iPhone 18/Pro/Max/Ultra = 12/256
Neo 2 = 8/256
Mac mini = 16/256
 
Before the 512GB option was taken off, the top end Mac Studio was briefly listed at £10,900 - £1100 more than the original price a few months back. Wouldn't be surprised if the M5 Ultra is well over £12,000.
 
Same news on and on and on…
It feels like nobody knows what’s really going on and there’s just piling on the same narrative.
Something similar happened with NVidia graphics cards some years ago… everybody in all forums were complaining in unison about unavailability of X or Y RTX model or the scalpels being the reason for shortages or complaints about exorbitant price increases. Then it all went back to being fine for some time, then once again the same tune with a different musical instrument.

And regarding the Apple Store, usually when deliveries started sliding away or configurations started being unavailable, suddenly there was a flood of rumors about “new models ‘likely’ coming out as soon as [baseless date prediction that never happens here], Gurman or Kuo or random-twitternaut said”.
Now we get double the sources for double the hypotheses for feeding this rumor machine.

After seeing the 20th similar post, boy do I feel like venting.
 
Yeah, when there's a shortage of components, such as ram needed to make these devices due to the incredible need for Ram, processors for AI data centers prices will go up. I remember back in the day when a Mac plus was charging $600 a stick of one megabyte ram.
 
fontman said:
Yeah, when there's a shortage of components, such as ram needed to make these devices due to the incredible need for Ram, processors for AI data centers prices will go up. I remember back in the day when a Mac plus was charging $600 a stick of one megabyte ram.
Click to expand...
Ahhh, the great DRAM shortage of 1988. Those were the days…
 
Apple are known for overpaying for RAM to ensure availability far into the future. Tim Cook pioneered that when he ran the supply chain for Steve Jobs in the 90's. This is likely hitting Samsung harder than Apple
 
  • Like
Reactions: iGeek2019
Think the base model prices and storage will remain the same for iPhones and iPads. Higher storage capacity versions will probably be $100 more. Should happen when the new models are released. As for Mac mini and iMac, base models will be having 512GB SSD and price should probably increase by $100. Redesigned MacBook Pro will definitely be costlier. Maybe $300 increase.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mganu
Imagine if Apple could just think "Well, let's not increase prices and do 30% gross margin profit for a while, instead of 40%. We'll survive just fine."

But instead, we know it's all about a fictive share price that cannot be allowed to go down.
 
Mackan said:
Imagine if Apple could just think "Well, let's not increase prices and do 30% gross margin profit for a while, instead of 40%. We'll survive just fine."

But instead, we know it's all about a fictive share price that cannot be allowed to go down.
Click to expand...
It’s kinda weird seeing Apple devices becoming the “value-priced option”, with the main reason being they negotiated better parts contracts than everyone else (probably due to buying RAM and SSD NAND by the ton for iPhones and iPads).
 
I’m sure the big companies like Samsung and Microsoft will get blasted for the price increases. It will be very interesting to see if Apple eventually has price increases, too. I’m sure their profit margins are high to begin with. I think every company can absorb some cost increases, but when you have both raw materials and ram increasing fairly quickly and abruptly, we have to expect that these increases will happen. A few weeks ago, didn’t Apple offer double for ram, just to secure it?

However, I think we should focus on the big picture. If large companies with huge profits have to raise their prices, it indicates even steeper hardships for smaller companies and consumers. It’s a little scary.
 
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