Samsung Co-CEO Says Soaring Memory Chip Prices Will 'Inevitably' Impact Smartphone Costs (reuters.com) 27
Samsung's co-CEO TM Roh has warned that product price increases are "inevitable" as an unprecedented global memory chip shortage squeezes margins across the company's consumer electronics lineup -- from smartphones to televisions and home appliances.
The South Korean giant, one of the top two largest smartphone manufacturers, plans to double the number of mobile devices running its Galaxy AI features to 800 million units this year, up from 400 million at the end of 2025. Galaxy AI is powered by Google's Gemini model and Samsung's own Bixby assistant for different tasks. "As this situation is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact," Roh told Reuters in his first interview since becoming co-CEO in November.
Samsung is working with partners on longer-term strategies to minimize the impact, he said. Market researchers IDC and Counterpoint predict the global smartphone market will shrink this year as the chip shortage threatens to drive up phone prices. The shortage is a boon to Samsung's semiconductor business but pressures margins on its smartphone division, the company's second-largest revenue source.
The South Korean giant, one of the top two largest smartphone manufacturers, plans to double the number of mobile devices running its Galaxy AI features to 800 million units this year, up from 400 million at the end of 2025. Galaxy AI is powered by Google's Gemini model and Samsung's own Bixby assistant for different tasks. "As this situation is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact," Roh told Reuters in his first interview since becoming co-CEO in November.
Samsung is working with partners on longer-term strategies to minimize the impact, he said. Market researchers IDC and Counterpoint predict the global smartphone market will shrink this year as the chip shortage threatens to drive up phone prices. The shortage is a boon to Samsung's semiconductor business but pressures margins on its smartphone division, the company's second-largest revenue source.
here we go (Score:2)
Inflation is so bad... (Score:5, Funny)
Stop the bloat, in RAM and dimensions (Score:2)
Can't ONE phone manufacturer take a step out of the herd of pathetic sheep and make a phone that does LESS and is physically COMPACT but TOUGH ?
Specs: 4.5" screen diagonal, 1" thick, rubber body, removable battery, 1GB RAM, minimal quick-responding OS, heaviest app is videocalling.
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In other words, it would be the ultimate super-31337 status symbol.
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Can't ONE phone manufacturer take a step out of the herd of pathetic sheep and make a phone that does LESS
In a word, no. If the phone doesn't run the apps that people want to run (whether they "should" want them being irrelevant) then that phone will fail in the market.
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Yes, now can we stop the virtue signal posts that have to pretend like these things don't exist?
https://www.ulefone.com/ [ulefone.com]
https://www.kyoceramobile.com/... [kyoceramobile.com]
https://oukitel.com/ [oukitel.com]
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Instead of posting links to makers of rugged-looking phones, post a link to a model that meets my specs.
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It means "hey everybody, pay attention to me and *how much i reject modern phones because this site is full of 40-70 grumpy old guys* (myself included). This style of post is so common to be a trope.
The fact you want me to find you a model shows you have put zero-minutes into actually looking so it's not that much of a need, thusly it's not a genuine ask for and a virtue signal.
Hope that clears it up.
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Nobody is going to buy an inch thick phone.
Phone RAM directly competes with... (Score:2)
Phone RAM directly competes with Laptop RAM, Compact Desktop RAM and server RAM
The same RAM chips (LP-DDR5) that go into a phone can go into a desktop or laptop, either directly soldered to the MoBo, or in CAMM2 or SO-CAMM 2 modules. And in servers, using, again SO-CAMM2 (while SO-CAMM2 can be used in laptops and compact desktops, it was designed primarely for server and datacenter applications).
No need to reconfigure the production lines, change the lithography masks, change procecess or anything. Literaly
Yes. So? (Score:3)
There is no need for a new phone every year. Just get one that comes with updates for a longer time. Unless you use your phone to compensate for personality defects or are into dating women that only want guys with the newest iPhone (is this really a thing?), in which case, paying through your nose is kind of expected.
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So the answer to that is an iPhone. Google claims years of updates on pixels but we know google's track record when it comes to canceling projects.
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No. I have a Fairphone. No problems with updates.
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Oh it's a thing! how big? I don't know but there are always a faction of women who will judge social status by some quick shallow metric and a much smaller subset that will stick with that first impression. We still have tiny men buying impressive cars despite that not working like it used to; but owning a junker is just as harmful if not more so.
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There is no need for a new phone every year. Just get one that comes with updates for a longer time.
Fortunately everyone bought a phone the same day you did, and no one ever breaks their phone or has it stolen. With this wonderful unity in the world where gweihir sets the purchase schedules companies are free to innovate on your required cadence.
On the other hand reality exists and people tend to not want to buy year old hardware when they can get something newer / better from someone else.
Why buy a new phone (Score:2)
if they old phone's still working? Other than "I'm so cool, i have the latest...", what does the new one do that the old one didn't?
Doesn't have to. (Score:3, Interesting)
Samsung makes the RAM, and the smartphones, and the manufacturing costs haven't changed. There's nothing stopping Samsung supplying themselves RAM for their smartphones at the same price they always have. They're raising the prices not because they have to, but because they'll make more money.
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Samsung is a multinational conglomerate. Corporations of that size often treat various divisions effectively as whole separate companies where internally one division is paying the same spot market price for components as a 3rd party company. Even when they manufacture a product themselves they are still at the whim of supply and demand related costs, the RAM division won't eat the costs from the Smartphone business, and in fact doing so may even run afoul of antitrust law.
See? Everyone benefits. (Score:2)
Well, I mean, not the 7.9 billion people at the bottom, but the 0.1% of the 0.1%? They're getting another trillion doolars baby.
What if smartphones cost twice as much? (Score:2)
As a consumer, my response will be to use my smartphone for twice as many years. Or to buy a lower end one if the one I have breaks.
Already out of hand (Score:2)
They have cost way to much for several years now. I haven't bought a new phone in 7-8 years. No need to. There is NOTHING in the newer phones I want or need. None of the newer ones come with the optional SDCard slot - I use this heavily. So I'll keep using mine until it dies - then I'm going back to an old "land line" and a flip phone (yes you can get them).
Apple is Immune to Memory Price Hikes (Score:2)
Thanks to Apple's decision to consolidate RAM memory onto their SOC, they are immune to the rest of the industry's price hikes on memory.
Still no word on what will happen to Apple's insanely overpriced storage memory which was 4x-8x more expensive than stand alone SSDs.
Re:Apple is Immune to Memory Price Hikes-unlikely (Score:2)