Apple turned memory price hikes into competitive advantage – analyst

Perhaps speculation Apple had figured out how to use its deep pocket book and scale to carve a big advantage out of the rapid price increases as they hit the mempory market earlier this year was correct. Counterpoint now tells us Apple has weeks of memory inventory giving it a huge advantage in the volatile price-driven smartphone market.

According to Counterpoint’s US Monthly Smartphone Inventory Tracker, Apple has positioned itself to weather memory price increases with weeks of inventory now on hand. “With higher inventory levels, Apple will be able to save on margins by taking advantage of H1 2026 memory chip pricing, Counterpoint said. 

This should help Apple put the squeeze on competitors by maintaining pricing through the rest of 2026, which should help it grab additional market share.

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The analysts explained that on March and April of 2025, ahead of ‘Liberation Day’, Apple was proactive and began pushing large volumes into the US through May. It now has enough memory to hand to make it to the iPhone 17 launch “should China tariffs be implemented again.” The company also continues to boost production in India.

Samsung has built up similar inventory, but smaller player Motorola which trued to do the same, was still forced to inceewas prices.

That price increase pressure is likely to impact other smaller smartphone vendors as memory costs hike, the analysts said.

“So far, Apple is positioned the strongest, in the US, to navigate 2026 and 2027 with extra hardware margin to play with versus its peers. It has a significant opportunity to grow its share, not just in the US, but globally as well,” they added.

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