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Comment by rafaelmn | Hacker News Reader

Apple is going to be even more profitable in the consumer space because of RAM prices ? I feel like they are the only player to have the supply chain locked down enough to not get caught off guard, have good prices locked in enough in advance and suppliers not willing to antagonize such a big customer by backing out of a deal.

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Apple software typically seems to give a better user experience in less RAM in both desktop and mobile.

For the last 10+ years apples iPhones have shipped with about half the ram of a flagship android for example.

They used to, but they've caught up. The flagship iPhone 17 has 12GB RAM, the same as the Galaxy S25. Only the most expensive Z Fold has more, with 16GB.

RAM pricing segmentation makes Apple a lot of money, but I think they scared themselves when AI took off and they had millions of 4GB and 8GB products out in the world. The Mac minimum RAM specs have gone up too, they're trying to get out of the hole they dug.

People always make this argument. But could you please expand on what you think is actually in memory?

code:data, by and large I bet that content held in ram takes up the majority of space. And people have complained about the lack of ram in iPhones for ages now, particularly with how it affects browsers.

>the only player to have the supply chain locked down enough to not get caught off guard What?

Tim Cook is the Supply Chain Guy. He has been for decades, before he ever worked at Apple. He does everything he can to make sure that Apple directly controls as much of the supply chain as possible, and uses the full extent of their influence to get favorable long-term deals on what they don't make themselves.

In the past this has resulted in stuff like Samsung Display sending their best displays to Apple instead of Samsung Mobile.

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