Analyst: Apple placed chip order for 32GB iPhones
Apple has reportedly ordered 100 million units of 8-gigabit and 16-gigabit NAND flash chips, with the bulk of its order coming from its main iPhone chip supplier, Samsung, according to a research report released Monday by a Lazard Capital Markets analyst.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second data point in a one-analyst arc: on March 31, a Lazard Capital Markets note flagged a possible 32GB iPhone debut in June, and today's report from the same shop supplies the supply-chain evidence — an alleged order of 100 million 8-gigabit and 16-gigabit NAND chips, bulk-sourced from Samsung. The claim is unconfirmed analyst sourcing, not an Apple announcement, so it reads as a forecast built on supplier checks rather than news of a deal.
The Samsung weighting continues a pattern visible since 2007, when DigiTimes reported that Hynix and Samsung were prioritizing NAND output for Apple over other customers. If the order size holds, Apple alone would be absorbing a meaningful share of the NAND market at the depths of the downturn — which is precisely why a single research note moves the story.
First-order effects
- Samsung's flash line gets its anchor customer confirmed by proxy: a 100-million-unit order concentrated with the incumbent supplier locks in utilization through mid-2009 while smaller rivals like Hynix compete for the remainder.
- Apple's product roadmap firms up without a word from Cupertino — the chip order is being read as the physical prerequisite for a higher-capacity iPhone tier arriving around June.
Second-order effects
- Other NAND buyers — handset makers and consumer-electronics firms restocking into a weak demand environment — face tighter allocation and firmer pricing as Apple pre-commits capacity that would otherwise float on the spot market.
- Rival phone vendors are pushed toward their own capacity commitments or multi-sourcing deals, since depending on leftover NAND after Apple's take means paying up exactly when component costs matter most.
Third-order effects
- The episode cements a structural feature of the flash market: flagship phones, led by the iPhone, become the demand floor that NAND fabs plan around, with memory content per device ratcheting upward every generation.
- Concentrating orders with one supplier builds dependency that cuts both ways — Apple gains scale pricing but inherits exposure to Samsung's own strategic interests, including its ambitions in handsets.
The trend: Smartphone memory-content inflation is turning Apple's order cadence into the de facto planning signal for the global NAND industry, deepening its reliance on Samsung even as the two companies compete.