Samsung sees high memory demand ahead of Apple's 'iPhone 8' as it plans $7B production boost

Samsung Electronics on Monday said it expects memory demand that drove record second-quarter profits to continue into the September quarter — something that may hint at its involvement in Apple's upcoming iPhones, particularly the "iPhone 8."

The company made the disclosure in announcing a $7 billion expansion of its NAND memory production in the Chinese city of Xi'an, according to Reuters. The company has already approved $2.3 billion of the investment, and should invest the total over the course of three years.

Samsung has long been a part of the Apple supply chain in varying capacities, and a recent rumor indicated that Samsung will help SK Hynix supply 512-gigabyte modules for the "iPhone 8." 64- and 256-gigabyte modules will allegedly come from Toshiba and SanDisk.

There's been no word so far on which firms are producing memory for Apple's "iPhone 7s" and "7s Plus," but Apple typically relies on a select group. This is mostly because of the sheer scale required — global iPhone units can reach tens of millions in a single quarter.

Apple is likely to reveal all three new iPhones at a September press event. The "iPhone 8" should feature an edge-to-edge, 5.8-inch OLED display — made by Samsung — with a virtual control area and 3D facial recognition taking the place of a Touch ID-equipped home button. The "7s" and "7s Plus" should mostly resemble their predecessors, but include some improvements from the "8," such as an "A11" processor and wireless charging.

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7 Comments

muthuk_vanalingam 1366 comments · 8 Years

About 7 years ago

By doing business with Samsung, Apple contributes MILLIONS of times to Samsung's coffers than ANY individual buying phones/other products from them. When people in this forum call those Samsung phone buyers various names, what would they call Apple as? I don't have anything against Apple, just calling out the "hypocrisy" shown by MANY people in this forum.

My own view - There is nothing wrong in Apple doing business with Samsung, because that is what it is - business. In the same way, people who buy Samsung products should not be called with derogatory terms. It is just NOT on. It would be extremely hypocritical to call "individuals" names when "appreciating/admiring" a company (Apple) for doing business with the "same" company (Samsung).

wizard69 13358 comments · 21 Years

About 7 years ago

Part of the is due to the whole industry switching away from spinning rust. Apple certainly contributes a significant bloom in sales for the quarter the new phones debut but that doesn't mean that the SSD isn't going along with strong sales. The fact is demand fo SSD's is pretty strong.

jurassic 94 comments · 15 Years

About 7 years ago

muthuk_vanalingam said:

By doing business with Samsung, Apple contributes MILLIONS of times to Samsung's coffers than ANY individual buying phones/other products from them. When people in this forum call those Samsung phone buyers various names, what would they call Apple as? I don't have anything against Apple, just calling out the "hypocrisy" shown by MANY people in this forum.

My own view - There is nothing wrong in Apple doing business with Samsung, because that is what it is - business. In the same way, people who buy Samsung products should not be called with derogatory terms. It is just NOT on. It would be extremely hypocritical to call "individuals" names when "appreciating/admiring" a company (Apple) for doing business with the "same" company (Samsung).

As far as I know, Apple is not buying Samsung-made NAND to use in Android phones. Apple is buying it to use in iPhones. Whereas people who buy Samsung-made smartphones are buying into the Android OS ecosystem, and all of the problems that it entails.
So no, Apple is not being "hypocritical", and neither are people who criticize others for buying Android phones (including Samsung's smartphones) but who see nothing wrong with Apple buying some necessary components for the iPhone from Samsung.
Of course, Samsung has always been a "frenemy" of Apple's, so it would be preferable if Apple chose to buy all of its components from non-Samsung sources. And in fact, Apple has been moving much of its purchases to other suppliers (for example, the A-series processors are now being fabricated by TSMC instead of Samsung). But for the time being, Samsung is still one of Apple's suppliers for some of the iPhone's components.

foggyhill 4767 comments · 10 Years

About 7 years ago

muthuk_vanalingam said:

By doing business with Samsung, Apple contributes MILLIONS of times to Samsung's coffers than ANY individual buying phones/other products from them. When people in this forum call those Samsung phone buyers various names, what would they call Apple as? I don't have anything against Apple, just calling out the "hypocrisy" shown by MANY people in this forum.

My own view - There is nothing wrong in Apple doing business with Samsung, because that is what it is - business. In the same way, people who buy Samsung products should not be called with derogatory terms. It is just NOT on. It would be extremely hypocritical to call "individuals" names when "appreciating/admiring" a company (Apple) for doing business with the "same" company (Samsung).

You have no clue about the meaning of actual words huh. Get a dictionary and find out what the hell you are saying; cause it makes no sense.

Apple buys from Samsung because they need such a huge volume of components that they can't possibly single source it (and it wouldn't be wise to do so even if they could).

muthuk_vanalingam 1366 comments · 8 Years

About 7 years ago

jurassic said:

muthuk_vanalingam said:

By doing business with Samsung, Apple contributes MILLIONS of times to Samsung's coffers than ANY individual buying phones/other products from them. When people in this forum call those Samsung phone buyers various names, what would they call Apple as? I don't have anything against Apple, just calling out the "hypocrisy" shown by MANY people in this forum.

My own view - There is nothing wrong in Apple doing business with Samsung, because that is what it is - business. In the same way, people who buy Samsung products should not be called with derogatory terms. It is just NOT on. It would be extremely hypocritical to call "individuals" names when "appreciating/admiring" a company (Apple) for doing business with the "same" company (Samsung).

As far as I know, Apple is not buying Samsung-made NAND to use in Android phones. Apple is buying it to use in iPhones. Whereas people who buy Samsung-made smartphones are buying into the Android OS ecosystem, and all of the problems that it entails.

So no, Apple is not being "hypocritical", and neither are people who criticize others for buying Android phones (including Samsung's smartphones) but who see nothing wrong with Apple buying some necessary components for the iPhone from Samsung.

Of course, Samsung has always been a "frenemy" of Apple's, so it would be preferable if Apple chose to buy all of its components from non-Samsung sources. And in fact, Apple has been moving much of its purchases to other suppliers (for example, the A-series processors are now being fabricated by TSMC instead of Samsung). But for the time being, Samsung is still one of Apple's suppliers for some of the iPhone's components.

foggyhill said:

muthuk_vanalingam said:

By doing business with Samsung, Apple contributes MILLIONS of times to Samsung's coffers than ANY individual buying phones/other products from them. When people in this forum call those Samsung phone buyers various names, what would they call Apple as? I don't have anything against Apple, just calling out the "hypocrisy" shown by MANY people in this forum.

My own view - There is nothing wrong in Apple doing business with Samsung, because that is what it is - business. In the same way, people who buy Samsung products should not be called with derogatory terms. It is just NOT on. It would be extremely hypocritical to call "individuals" names when "appreciating/admiring" a company (Apple) for doing business with the "same" company (Samsung).

You have no clue about the meaning of actual words huh. Get a dictionary and find out what the hell you are saying; cause it makes no sense.

Apple buys from Samsung because they need such a huge volume of components that they can't possibly single source it (and it wouldn't be wise to do so even if they could).

There was an article about Samsung chief being given 5 years sentence in AI just yesterday. Please go through the comments in the article https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/201441/samsung-chief-jay-y-lee-given-five-year-sentence-for-role-in-south-korean-corruption-scan/p1. In this background, I wrote my comment. Once you go through the comments in THAT thread, you will UDNERSTAND what I was talking about. I should have linked that article in my first post itself, which was a mistake from my end. After going through it, please come back and comment on this topic.