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Comment by RyanShook | Hacker News Reader

I see this as a competitive opportunity for Apple. If Apple smartphone specs improve while Androids stagnate it could create more iOS users.

The promised AI metaverse is still a long way off and in the meantime people still want the best smartphone.

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How is it an opportunity for Apple? They are a customer of Samsung and Micron RAM modules just like everyone else is. They aren't in any unique position other than their user base is already used to paying extreme markup for RAM. Now whether Apple just eats the cost in their profit margin or charges even more for RAM remains to be seen.

Their supply chain prowess likely means they have already secured contracts for 2026 (and maybe even 2027), so they will not be affected by the price hike. But maybe they'll still use it as an opportunity to bump prices and rake in free profit, who knows.

Apple reportedly negotiated a 50% price increase in memory supply for 2026, down from a higher price given to other OEMs.

I have no idea how much RAM my phone has.

And if you think that somebody buys an iPhone because they compare the specs with Android :)))))

Basically if I have to start comparing iPhone specs to Android phone specs I might aswell just buy an Android. The point of iOS is that you don't have to.

I agree with you and have agreed with you for a long time. However, I definitely see the writing on the wall. More than one person in my circle have traditionally been Android users and the lack of innovation from both Apple and Android have them comparing devices on specs MUCH more. I include myself in this list on my next upgrade. I'll be looking largely at specs on the next upgrad because honestly there's not much day to day difference in usage between apple and android anymore

The competitive advantage comes from Apple having the supply chain contracts in place to not be affected by the 2026 price hike as much. The Android phones will be more expensive and thus will capture less market share.

iPhone being expensive is a feature.

"What do you mean my status flagship iPhone costs only half as much as a flagship Android???"

> if Apple smartphone specs improve while Androids stagnate it could create more iOS user

Nah. The marginal utility of more smartphone ram is near zero at this point. The vast majority of people wouldn't even notice if the memory in their phone tripled overnight.

Most regular people don’t care about RAM specs. And lately it’s Apple that has been rather stagnating in terms of features.

I would love stagnation, the keyboard has always been a dumpster fire but these days it is an actively regressing dumpster fire

What, because they aren't shoving an LLM in every orifice of their product?

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