Has Apple Created the Memory Crisis? The Reconstruction That Points the Finger at Cupertino

The Memory Market Crisis

The crisis in the memory market continues to be felt, and producers are starting to contend with a significant increase in component costs. Among the companies involved is also Apple, which in recent months has raised the prices of several products.

According to a recent reconstruction, one of the causes of the current situation could be traced back to the procurement strategies adopted over the years by the Cupertino company, which may have contributed to altering the market balance. Previously, Micron had also pointed to Apple as one of the factors underlying the crisis in the sector.

Apple's Role in the Memory Crisis

For years, Apple has pursued a particularly aggressive purchasing policy, leveraging its enormous bargaining power to obtain very favorable conditions from memory producers. The goal was to contain the cost of components destined for its devices. Between 2023 and 2024, for example, the company paid about $17 for an 8 GB LPDDR5X module and about $22 for a 256 GB NAND chip. In practice, to equip an iPhone with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, the total expense for memory and storage was around $39.

At the same time, Apple continued to apply a very high markup for capacity upgrades: the transition from 256 to 512 GB of storage provided the company with an additional revenue of about $99, while the increase in component costs was significantly lower. For suppliers, however, margins remained extremely tight.

According to this interpretation, the compression of profitability has limited the necessary investments to expand production capacity, contributing to the imbalances that currently characterize the memory market.

Now Memories Cost More

However, the scenario has changed. For the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro, estimates indicate that Apple will have to bear substantially higher costs: about $145 for 12 GB of RAM and another $51 for 256 GB of NAND flash memory. Overall, the cost of components destined for RAM and storage would thus reach approximately $196, highlighting how much the current crisis has affected memory prices.