Who would have thought that Apple’s biggest wins could also fill a rival’s pockets? The iPhone 17 has truly surprised everyone. This new smartphone from Apple is selling like hotcakes, and while you might expect its competitors to struggle, the truth is quite the opposite. This success is actually making Samsung, Apple’s chief competitor, much richer.
The iPhone 17 series, including the super-slim iPhone Air, is seeing massive demand worldwide. It’s especially popular in places like China. These new phones offer much better performance than the older iPhone 16 models. Both the iPhone 17 and the incredibly thin Air continue to set new sales records.
You might think these huge sales would hurt Samsung. And yes, the strong demand for the iPhone 17 has negatively affected sales of Samsung’s own Galaxy S and Galaxy Z phones. But even though they’re direct rivals, the South Korean tech giant is getting a sweet indirect benefit from the iPhone 17’s booming sales.
This interesting situation isn’t new; it’s been happening for years. Samsung is not just a competitor; it’s also Apple’s largest and most crucial component supplier. Samsung is the top provider of OLED screens and high-speed memory chips, known as RAM, that Apple needs for its new iPhone 17 models.
Samsung makes a lot of money from these smartphone sales. Most of the 12 GB LPDDR5X RAM chips used in the iPhone 17 series come directly from Samsung’s factories. Other companies like SK Hynix and Micron also help out as subcontractors. So, it’s simple math: the more new iPhones Apple sells, the more components Samsung sells to Apple. This chain reaction directly boosts the South Korean giant’s earnings.
What’s more, this surge in demand could increase Samsung’s profits in another way: higher chip prices. Apple needs a lot of memory for its new phones. This demand comes at a time when there’s also a growing global need for HBM chips, which are important for artificial intelligence applications.
This creates a tight spot for manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. They have to run their factories at full speed just to keep up. If there isn’t enough supply to meet all this high demand, we might see memory chip prices go up. In such a scenario, Samsung would make even more money, not just from selling more units but also from charging more for each chip.