In a world dictated by the typical economic order, older devices should become cheaper over time under the relentless march of technology-led obsolescence. Yet, in the bizarro world that we currently populate, older devices are experiencing progressive price hikes. We witnessed this phenomenon with Sony’s price hikes for its older gaming consoles, and Samsung is now reportedly following suit with a planned jump in retail prices for its Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy Flip 7, and Galaxy S25 Edge.
Samsung is reportedly gearing up to announce a price hike for some of its Galaxy models, with the ongoing Iran war and memory ‘chipflation’ identified as the primary stimuli
According to a South Korean publication, Samsung is gearing up to increase the retail prices of some of the variants of the Galaxy S25 Edge, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 as soon as April 01.
Specifically, the S25 Edge, Fold 7, and Flip 7 variants with storage capacities of 512GB or more are reportedly slated for a price hike. Samsung is considering a 100,000 won ($66) price increase for the 512GB variants of these smartphones, with a steeper price hike of 200,000 won ($131) slated for the 1TB models.
As for what’s prompting these aberrant moves, industry sources have identified a double whammy of sorts: the astronomical increase in memory chip prices over the past year, largely driven by the AI-led cornering of global DRAM capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), as well as the ongoing logistics upheaval from the Iran war in the Middle East.
For instance, one relatively unforeseen outcome of the Iran war has been the global shortage of helium gas, which is used in semiconductor fabs for cryogenic cooling and high-purity cleaning. Do note that Qatar’s gigantic North Field is a major source of helium gas. However, those supplies currently remain inaccessible due to Iran’s closure of the Hormuz Strait.
Of course, there are signs that the Trump administration is now pursuing an off-ramp of sorts in the Iran war. Even so, hope is not a strategy, and Samsung would likely implement its planned price hikes in the ongoing week.
On the memory front, we noted recently that DDR5 spot prices have now begun declining from their recent zenith, with the popular narrative identifying Google’s TurboQuant as the instigator. People fear that the algorithm – which compresses the KV cache in a lossless fashion – would dampen the oncoming demand for memory resources just as major players start to embark on capacity expansion.
On the Decline in Memory Semiconductor Spot Prices [Daishin Securities Semiconductor / Ryu Hyung-geun]
What is the problem?
Memory semiconductor share prices continue to decline. The fundamental backdrop, if there is one, would be macro uncertainty, but from a sector…
— Jukan (@jukan05) March 31, 2026
Even so, in what is a vindication of sorts for Samsung’s planned price hikes, industry analysts continue to contend that a moderation in spot prices does not indicate an imminent trend reversal. In fact, Daishin Securities recently disclosed this valuable nugget to suggest that the ongoing memory chipflation will continue for the time being:
“According to our channel checks, one major CSP has decided to purchase server DDR4 at a price exceeding that of HBM3e. If genuine demand had begun to weaken, it would be impossible to explain why buyers are paying premiums for legacy products.”
Of course, for Samsung, the situation constitutes a pricing hellscape, with the company damned in the eyes of its customers if it raises the prices of older models, and damned among shareholders if it does not, resulting in a significant hit to its margins.
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