Samsung Co-CEO Says Soaring Memory Chip Prices Will 'Inevitably' Impact Smartphone Costs (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0180517573
- News link: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/01/05/144211/samsung-co-ceo-says-soaring-memory-chip-prices-will-inevitably-impact-smartphone-costs
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/samsung-double-mobile-devices-powered-by-googles-gemini-800-mln-units-this-year-2026-01-05/
The South Korean giant, one of the top two largest smartphone manufacturers, plans to double the number of mobile devices running its Galaxy AI features to 800 million units this year, up from 400 million at the end of 2025. Galaxy AI is powered by Google's Gemini model and Samsung's own Bixby assistant for different tasks. "As this situation is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact," Roh told Reuters in his first interview since becoming co-CEO in November.
Samsung is working with partners on longer-term strategies to minimize the impact, he said. Market researchers IDC and Counterpoint predict the global smartphone market will shrink this year as the chip shortage threatens to drive up phone prices. The shortage is a boon to Samsung's semiconductor business but pressures margins on its smartphone division, the company's second-largest revenue source.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/china/samsung-double-mobile-devices-powered-by-googles-gemini-800-mln-units-this-year-2026-01-05/
Inflation is so bad... (Score:5, Funny)
That even the number of CEOs needed to run a company have doubled.
Stop the bloat, in RAM and dimensions (Score:2)
2GB RAM - let alone more - is grossly more than my phone should need to run an OS and perform the tasks I need it for ( i.e. not games ).
Can't ONE phone manufacturer take a step out of the herd of pathetic sheep and make a phone that does LESS and is physically COMPACT but TOUGH ?
Specs: 4.5" screen diagonal, 1" thick, rubber body, removable battery, 1GB RAM, minimal quick-responding OS, heaviest app is videocalling.
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In other words, it would be the ultimate super-31337 status symbol.
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> Can't ONE phone manufacturer take a step out of the herd of pathetic sheep and make a phone that does LESS
In a word, no. If the phone doesn't run the apps that people want to run (whether they "should" want them being irrelevant) then that phone will fail in the market.
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Yes, now can we stop the virtue signal posts that have to pretend like these things don't exist?
[1]https://www.ulefone.com/ [ulefone.com]
[2]https://www.kyoceramobile.com/... [kyoceramobile.com]
[3]https://oukitel.com/ [oukitel.com]
[1] https://www.ulefone.com/
[2] https://www.kyoceramobile.com/available-devices
[3] https://oukitel.com/
Re: (Score:2)
"Virtue signalling" must mean something different to you than it does to the rest of the world.
Instead of posting links to makers of rugged-looking phones, post a link to a model that meets my specs.
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It means "hey everybody, pay attention to me and *how much i reject modern phones because this site is full of 40-70 grumpy old guys* (myself included). This style of post is so common to be a trope.
The fact you want me to find you a model shows you have put zero-minutes into actually looking so it's not that much of a need, thusly it's not a genuine ask for and a virtue signal.
Hope that clears it up.
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Nobody is going to buy an inch thick phone.
Phone RAM directly competes with... (Score:2)
Phone RAM directly competes with Laptop RAM, Compact Desktop RAM and server RAM
The same RAM chips (LP-DDR5) that go into a phone can go into a desktop or laptop, either directly soldered to the MoBo, or in CAMM2 or SO-CAMM 2 modules. And in servers, using, again SO-CAMM2 (while SO-CAMM2 can be used in laptops and compact desktops, it was designed primarely for server and datacenter applications).
No need to reconfigure the production lines, change the lithography masks, change procecess or anything. Literaly
Yes. So? (Score:3)
There is no need for a new phone every year. Just get one that comes with updates for a longer time. Unless you use your phone to compensate for personality defects or are into dating women that only want guys with the newest iPhone (is this really a thing?), in which case, paying through your nose is kind of expected.
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So the answer to that is an iPhone. Google claims years of updates on pixels but we know google's track record when it comes to canceling projects.
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No. I have a Fairphone. No problems with updates.
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Oh it's a thing! how big? I don't know but there are always a faction of women who will judge social status by some quick shallow metric and a much smaller subset that will stick with that first impression. We still have tiny men buying impressive cars despite that not working like it used to; but owning a junker is just as harmful if not more so.
Why buy a new phone (Score:2)
if they old phone's still working? Other than "I'm so cool, i have the latest...", what does the new one do that the old one didn't?
Doesn't have to. (Score:3)
Samsung makes the RAM, and the smartphones, and the manufacturing costs haven't changed. There's nothing stopping Samsung supplying themselves RAM for their smartphones at the same price they always have. They're raising the prices not because they have to, but because they'll make more money.
See? Everyone benefits. (Score:2)
Well, I mean, not the 7.9 billion people at the bottom, but the 0.1% of the 0.1%? They're getting another trillion doolars baby.
here we go (Score:2)
stonk lines go up before shortages even happen.