While Apple almost always has the upper hand when negotiating with suppliers, a sketchy report claims that was not the case when it came to purchasing RAM from Samsung.
According to the report, Samsung asked for a 100% price increase with the expectation that it would negotiate a 60% reduction, but Apple’s desperation led it to accede to the first request.
Apple has a reputation as a very tough negotiator when it comes to supplier contracts. The company typically competes against two or three competing suppliers and offers the largest order to the company that offers the best price.
But a global shortage of memory chips has significantly weakened Apple’s usually strong position. Many companies that buy memory chips have to agree to price increases of more than 100%.
investment site deal site (via WCCF Tech) Samsung claims it had hoped to agree to a 60% increase in iPhone memory prices, but asked Apple for a 100% increase in anticipation of having to negotiate a lower price. However, Apple has reportedly agreed to a 100% increase.
A person in the semiconductor industry said, “Samsung Electronics’ DS division initially set a strategy with the goal of raising the price of LPDDR5X for Apple iPhone by about 60%.” “However, in the initial negotiations (where opinions were agreed upon at 60%), we first proposed a 100% increase, which Apple immediately accepted, and the price was fixed. That’s how desperate smartphone companies are to secure memory inventory.”
9to5Mac’s opinion
I’m somewhat skeptical about the details of this claim, given that very few people would know the details of the negotiations and all involved would have been rather senior executives. However, it’s possible that one of the Samsung teams involved was so proud of the deal that he inadvertently bragged about it.
Either way, it’s clear that tech giants are facing price hikes of this magnitude, and Apple won’t be spared.
Image: Samsung
(Tag Translation) Samsung
