The surge in memory prices is hitting everyone hard, including phone and PC makers, who are then passing down these increased costs to customers. Now, AI seems to be the culprit here, but are they? According to Micron, it seems Apple might be to blame for the memory price increase.
Micron blames Apple for memory price increase
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, it seems that Micron believes Apple is to blame for the memory price increase. Micron does not name Apple outright, but according to its chief business officer, Sumit Sadana, Apple might have had a role to play in this.
According to Sadana’s comments, “We told a couple of the customers who were being very aggressive with pricing at that time that this is not constructive. A lot of the industry investments got shut down in 2023 because of really poor pricing and really poor margins.”
Some were quick to speculate that Sadana could be referring to Apple. Micron is one of Apple’s memory suppliers for its iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. Apple is also notorious for getting its suppliers to lower its prices in exchange for long-term contracts. Given that Apple produces millions of products a year, many businesses felt this made sense. Guaranteed business for the next few years for a company as big as Apple in exchange for lower margins? Why not?
However, many comments on social media aren’t buying Sadana’s reasoning. It’s up to companies to decide if they want to take on Apple as a customer. Secondly, how these companies choose to invest their own revenue has nothing to do with Apple.
The entire industry’s affected
That being said, everyone is affected by the increase in memory prices. Just recently, Nothing confirmed that the CMF Phone 3 Pro will not be launching this year. The company’s co-founder mentioned it was due to memory prices now, which would make the budget phone more expensive.
Apple also recently raised the prices of its products across the board. This includes the MacBook Neo, which lost its value proposition when it went from $599 to $699. The MacBook Pro was also the most affected, jumping by $300 from $1,699 to $1,999.
That being said, there might be light at the end of the tunnel. According to former Samsung exec, Kye-hyun Kyung, he believes that prices could drop significantly in the second half of 2027. This is because of China’s heavy investments, which could result in Chinese-made memory chips flooding the market and easing shortages.
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