There are only so many companies out there who make memory chips for smartphones and desktop PCs. As smartphones have become more popular over the years, it’s actually caused a supply strain on certain companies as the prices have slowly risen to meet demand. Since it’s not easy to build a factory and start manufacturing memory chips, it takes a huge investment and that is both time and resources that many companies aren’t able to commit to.
The PC market has seen a huge increase in RAM prices over the last year or two and many point to the smartphone’s rise as the main culprit. As it is now, the industry can only produce so many mobile memory chips and Apple is known to take a big chunk of that when they start to manufacture the next iPhone. This is what analysts and industry insiders are currently saying is happening in regards to the upcoming iPhone 8 from Apple.
They’re saying that big companies like Samsung won’t be effected, which is likely because they’re the world’s largest memory chip maker to begin with. But the focus is on the smaller OEMs who sell smartphones around the world. These sources are saying the smaller OEMs are worried about upcoming supply issues and are doing two things in hopes to combat it. Some are placing orders early and stock piling as much memory chips as possible.
Others are said to be in talks with memory chip makers in hopes that they can extend their contracts and doing this is causing them to pay more money for this to take place. Many are even citing Huawei’s recent P10 issue as an early sign that this is already happening. Some are even saying that OLED display inventory could take a hit too, and this could be why Google reportedly invested in LG’s OLED production capabilities.
Source: Reuters
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