Samsung hikes prices of their chipset; likely to effect pricing of smartphones

Samsung, the world’s largest chipmaker, has increased the prices of its mobile memory chips by 10-20% for some of its largest smartphone customers, including OPPO, Xiaomi, and Google. The price increase is related to a decrease in memory chip supply due to lower output.

Samsung raises the price of their chipsets; rise in the price of smartphones soon?

According to the Korea Economic Daily, Samsung Electronics recently inked DRAM and NAND chip supply contracts with customers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and Google at prices that are 10-20% more than its existing contracts.

According to a Samsung executive, the supply-demand balance in the memory chip market will shift toward a shortage as early as the fourth quarter of this year. In other words, Samsung anticipates a memory chip shortage in the fourth quarter.