In a remarkable turn of events, Apple dropped a significant revelation during its recent earnings call, asserting that the principal constraint on its products lies not in memory but in TSMC’s advanced node capacity amidst rampant turmoil in the global smartphone arena.
Consider this: conservative projections indicate that Apple’s iPhones are poised to utilize an astonishing 2.4 exabytes of memory within this fiscal year.
Yet, the tech titan from Cupertino boldly proclaims that it faces no memory-related limitations, all while strategically maintaining product pricing.
This bold statement challenges Chinese OEMs directly—Apple is intent on reclaiming market share!
In early April, we uncovered supply chain whispers suggesting that Apple was in pursuit of “all available mobile DRAM on the market,” effectively stifling competitors from securing adequate memory chips.
Shortly thereafter, Daishin Securities lent credence to this narrative, postulating that Apple was strategically hoarding memory to impede its rivals’ shipment targets, even as it escalated its own iPhone shipment forecast to a still-conservative 240 million units.
Furthermore, recent reports reveal that Apple, with Samsung closely following, is “sweeping the LPDDR market,” entering into long-term agreements with prominent memory suppliers.
At the same time, Apple endeavors to keep product prices as stable as possible. When faced with inevitable price increases, the company appears willing to make sacrifices at the base model level, as witnessed with the M4-based Mac mini, focusing instead on maintaining price stability for premium variants.
Chinese OEMs are weighing whether to cancel or make Ultra flagships more exclusive as BOM costs hit about $917. It raises a real question: were Apple and Samsung right to pace their upgrades instead of pushing specs too aggressively? pic.twitter.com/mxLDlqv9rV
— Schrödinger (@phonefuturist) May 3, 2026
This predicament becomes increasingly intolerable for Chinese OEMs, many of whom find themselves grappling with Bill of Materials (BOM) costs soaring to approximately $917 for their Ultra-class flagships.
Consequently, industry insider Schrödinger suggests that several Chinese manufacturers are contemplating the elimination of their Ultra smartphone models entirely, thereby leaving the competitive landscape largely unguarded for Apple and, to a lesser degree, Samsung.
When one considers that Apple’s iPhone 17 series has already achieved 20 million activations in China, with around 10 million of these attributed to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the reality becomes stark: Chinese OEMs are struggling to contend with Apple at its prevailing flagship pricing.
Source link: Wccftech.com.
