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Will this RAM shortage also affect the price of mobile phones?


I read that Apple will start feeling the heat in the third quarter of this year although nobody knows for sure. That will either shrink their margins a bit or iPhones prices will go up.


Poor guys would have to reduce margins from 50% to 40%. ;_;


Given how eagerly companies have used price rises - even unrelated - as an excuse to raise prices disproportionately since 2020 I expect so


They'll jack them up for any excuse and then stay whisper quiet when the excuse no longer holds


Most base level smartphones are loss leaders and wouldn't be severely impacted and upper-tier smartphones tend to be priced at their true value. It's the mid-tier SKUs that get impacted.

Additonally, depending on which country you live in, telecom vendors reduce the upfront cost of the phone purchase and make up the difference via contracts.


    > Most base level smartphones are loss leaders
Is this really true? Or rather, how can we know it is true? I tried to Google for some info, but I cannot find any reliable sources.


The Verge had some good coverage about this, but TLDR: probably. Flagship phones may not raise in price to fully reflect it. They might cut costs elsewhere like keeping the same camera, or eat some of the cost increase in their margin.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/880812/ramageddon-ram-shortage...

They discussed it on the decoder podcast as well.




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