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Sep 9
Apple yields to memory suppliers in historic strategy shift, with Kioxia tipped as NAND long-term agreement recipient
Apple, historically known for wielding unmatched leverage in component price negotiations, has reportedly been trading pricing leverage for long-term supply guarantees from memory manufacturers. Facing a severe structural shortage driven by the AI infrastructure boom, the company has reportedly signed a long-term supply agreement (LTA) for NAND flash memory, prioritizing volume guarantees over cost suppression.
Two things happened at Apple's September 9 launch that belong in the same story: the company raised the price of every iPhone it sells by exactly US$100, and it introduced a chip whose headline improvement is a wider memory interface, without saying how much memory sits behind it.

Apple's foldable iPhone Duo could reshape the global smartphone market, pushing Android brands to move faster on foldable handsets and camera innovation. Suppliers said the launch may revive competition in a niche still dominated by Android, while underscoring the technical limits, pricing pressure, and profit opportunities facing module makers worldwide.

China's next-generation communications push is beginning to reveal a broader ambition than simply putting faster wireless connections into future smartphones.

These are the seven supply chain takeaways from Apple's announcements on September 9, covering new iPhone models, new AirPods, chips, and upgrades to its ecosystem.

Apple CEO John Ternus used his first major event as chief executive to signal where the company is headed after officially succeeding Tim Cook in September 2026. Speaking at the annual showcase, he framed the iPhone as the personal computing hub for the AI era and suggested Apple is not rushing to replace it.

For years, smartphone processors have competed through a familiar formula: faster CPUs, stronger graphics, and increasingly smaller process nodes. Apple's newly unveiled A20 Pro suggests that formula is beginning to change.

Apple used its 2026 iPhone launch to do two things it had avoided for years: name the process node in its flagship chip, and raise the price of phones already on sale. Both moves point to the same pressure. Memory is expensive, the packaging that binds memory to logic has become the hard part of building a phone chip, and Apple has stopped absorbing the cost.
Apple has entered the foldable market at the top of it. iPhone Duo, announced in Cupertino on 9 September, starts at US$1,999 with 256GB and goes up to 2TB — above the US$1,899 Samsung charges for the wide-format Galaxy Z Fold8 — and is priced as a halo product rather than a volume one. The interesting question is not whether Apple can sell it. It is who gets to build it, and how few of them there are.
Verizon and Corning have agreed to a multi-billion-dollar supply deal that could shape broadband access and artificial intelligence infrastructure well beyond the US. The pact underscores how telecom networks are becoming a shared foundation for consumer internet, enterprise connectivity, and the data-heavy systems driving the next wave of AI services.
The flagship foldable market has reached a pivotal turning point as tech giants abandon tall, narrow cover screens in favor of wider aspect ratios and custom processing hardware. Xiaomi's newly launched Xiaomi 18 Fold brings direct competition to top-tier rivals such as the Huawei Pura X Max and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, while setting the stage for Apple's anticipated entry into the category later this week. For prospective buyers evaluating these premium devices, the ultimate purchasing decision hinges on core trade-offs including display usability and internal hardware performance.
Samsung Electronics has moved to expand production of mid- to low-end smartphones from August to November 2026, according to South Korean media Maeil Business Newspaper. The plan comes as rising memory chip prices are forcing other handset makers to pull back on lower-margin models, and Samsung is looking to use the shift to gain more smartphone market share.