A leaked image of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, left, and the X Fold 8 UltraONLEAKS
[NEWS ANALYSIS]
While rivals like Apple and Xiaomi reel from soaring memory prices with no offset, Samsung Electronics is adopting a more measured pricing strategy for its smartphones with its built-in cushion as the world's largest memory chip supplier.
Although Samsung Electronics’ handset division is required to buy the critical component at the same market rates as its competitors, it is able to absorb the impact given the company as a whole has been the net winner of a surge in demand for semiconductors.
The Korean tech giant has already been spotted strategically lowering prices of budget models aimed at high-volume markets like India while likely freezing the entry price on its new wider foldable variant to counter Apple's upcoming foldable debut. Apple, on the other hand, faces a tighter bind. Memory costs are steep enough that it is reportedly considering buying chips from Chinese chipmaker CXMT, while Tim Cook forecasted price surge for upcoming iPhones.
Samsung suddenly faces less competition, especially for its low-tier devices, as Chinese smartphone makers pull back under memory cost pressure.
Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Meizu have all either trimmed their projected shipments or scrapped planned releases entirely this year — moves all tracing back to the same memory shortage.
In India, one of Samsung's biggest markets, the timing has worked in the company's favor.
Its latest budget offering, the Galaxy M47 5G, has drawn praise for punching above its price tag — and online comparisons against Realme's 16T have only helped its case, with Samsung coming out ahead on specs at a lower price point. For a brand long criticized in the budget segment for charging a premium without delivering one, it marks a notable turnaround. The shift echoes a dynamic Apple once experienced: the perception of being overpriced faded not because prices dropped, but because the competition caught up.
Part of why Samsung can play this differently from Apple comes down to its semiconductor arm. Unlike Apple, which has to source memory from outside suppliers, Samsung's chip division supplies memory directly to its own smartphone division.
Samsung LPDDR5X memory chips are displayed in a product image.SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS
"It is understood that the two divisions have a long-term contract, allowing Samsung's smartphone business to meet its shipment targets without facing the same memory supply risks," a source familiar with the matter told the Korea JoongAng Daily. "That said, it's unclear how long Samsung can keep this up, because nobody really knows when this memory crunch ends."
Relief isn't coming soon. New memory capacity isn't expected to come online until 2027, and even then, Samsung, SK hynix and Micron show little sign of shifting priorities away from high-end AI memory.
"Total DRAM [dynamic random-access memory] supply growth in 2027 is projected at only 20 to 25 percent, falling drastically short of server demand growth expected between 50 and 70 percent," said Meritz Securities analyst Kim Sun-woo. "Production will continue to be concentrated on high-end memory, which will sustain persistent price surges for low-end legacy memory through at least the end of next year."
Hike up prices, or omit AI features
With the memory crunch showing no signs of easing, Samsung and Apple's upcoming launches will mark a notable inflection point where manufacturers now have little choice but to pass them on to consumers.
Samsung's reveal comes first with an Unpacked event later this month, set to release its next foldable lineup including a new wider variant.
Much of the attention falls on pricing. A rise in prices seems inevitable, so the attention falls on whether Samsung will raise entry-level prices or push the increases onto higher storage tiers.
What's worth noting is that Samsung appears to be letting the Z Fold 8 Ultra — the direct successor to the traditional Z Fold 7 — absorb the bulk of the chip cost increases, while positioning the new wider variant, the Z Fold 8, at a lower price point than its Ultra counterpart.
The Z Fold 8 Ultra's base tier is expected at $2,100, $100 more than the Z Fold 7. The price gap widens at higher storage tiers: $180 more for the 512GB model and $280 more for the 1TB model. The new wide variant, the Z Fold 8, has no direct predecessor to benchmark against, but its base tier is speculated at $1,799.
Why Samsung made this choice remains unclear, though many suspect it is a preemptive move against Apple's first foldable, set to launch this September at a starting price north of $2,000.
Apple's new foldable form factor slated to launch this September4RMD
Samsung’s global shipments will begin a month earlier than Apple’s anticipated showdown.
Counterpoint Research notes that higher phone prices are inevitable this year. For premium handsets, DRAM costs are expected to take up 23 percent of the total costs in the second quarter, up 6 percentage points from the first quarter. DRAM prices have surged over 50 percent in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter.
“Considering the massive memory price surge, standard cost-cutting measures may only result in limited returns,” noted Counterpoint Research analyst Shenghao Bai. “A rise in retail prices seems unavoidable in 2026. We expect low-end retail prices to increase by around $30, while the cost pressures on some premium flagships will likely be passed on to consumers, resulting in price hikes of $150 to $200.”
For Apple, though, the contention is less about pricing and more about RAM capacity — and the spotlight falls not on its September event, but on the iPhone 18, set to release next spring. It marks the first time Apple is splitting its iPhone launches across two separate windows, but what has dominated the conversation is the lower-than-expected 9GB of RAM for the iPhone 18 and 18e, according to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
The working memory is 1GB up from iPhone 17, but they will still miss out on two iOS 27 Apple Intelligence features: the ability to customize Siri's voice expressiveness and pace, and a major speech-to-text accuracy upgrade. Both require at least 12GB of RAM, which only the Pro models carry.
The news has dampened enthusiasm among Apple users, many of whom had been expecting 12GB RAM for the iPhone 18 and 16GB for the Pro line before the memory crisis upended those hopes. Some are now bracing for an even wider AI functionality gap between standard and Pro models down the road, as more Apple Intelligence features roll out exclusively to higher-tier devices.
