A *Silent Hill*-style hunt is coming! Who’s most panicked about Apple stockpiling memory?

It’s like walking into a dimly flickering hospital corridor: before you even see the monster, you first hear the rising and falling footsteps behind the doors. That’s exactly the feeling in today’s mobile memory market. On the surface, it looks like Apple is just buying DRAM, but once you snap back to reality, the entire supply chain is already starting to feel a chill down its spine.

According to Daishin Securities, Apple is stockpiling mobile DRAM on a massive scale amid a global memory shortage. The goal is not complicated: lock in core production capacity first, then squeeze the amount of supply competitors can get into an even narrower space. The report also mentioned that Apple has raised its iPhone shipment target for this year to 240 million units. To put it bluntly, this level of purchasing means shutting the warehouse doors first, then watching everyone else fight over what’s left.

What’s even more unsettling is that the panic has already spread from upstream to device makers. Multiple OEMs have started scrambling for supply regardless of cost, and some Chinese customers even accepted quarter-on-quarter price hikes of 90% to 100% in Q2. That kind of increase is no longer normal fluctuation; it feels more like the slow, suffocating pressure of a horror movie, where by the time you realize something is wrong, the cost sheet has already been burned through.

But what really alarmed me wasn’t this — it was the signal that capacity is being pulled away even further. The report revealed that due to tight DRAM capacity, the originally planned 16-layer and 20-layer stacks for HBM4E have already been scaled down to 12-layer and 16-layer. On top of that, with HBM4E’s I/O speed increasing to 15–16Gbps, the capacity substitution ratio between general-purpose DRAM and HBM has risen from 3:1 to as high as 5:1. That means already-tight mainstream memory supply will continue to give way to high-end AI-related demand.

What does this mean for the smartphone world? Very simply: bill-of-materials costs for mid-range and high-end models will remain under pressure. Brands with thin margins will feel the pain first, and from there two outcomes are likely: either cut specs or raise prices. It’s hard not to laugh bitterly — many manufacturers love talking about “price wars,” but when upstream supply starts running out of oxygen, the so-called value-for-money myth is often the first thing to crack.

Another point worth watching is the iPhone18 Pro, expected to launch this September. There are reports that it may maintain the same starting price as the previous generation. If that does turn out to be true, Apple’s competitiveness will be amplified even further in an environment where memory costs are clearly rising. While everyone else is struggling in the rising tide, Apple would look like it secured a lifeboat in advance.

If you’re planning to replace your phone soon, my advice is simple: don’t just focus on the processor and cameras — start paying attention to price changes for different memory capacity versions, especially in the second half of the year. For ordinary consumers, buying early may not necessarily mean a huge win, but the longer you wait, the less likely it is that higher-memory versions from some brands will stay consumer-friendly. For enthusiasts, this is not just another industry news story. It feels more like a cold draft blowing from the end of the corridor, reminding you that the real scare usually comes before the monster shows up.