iPhones have never had so much RAM, according to this study

The price of RAM has continued to rise for several months, as memory chip manufacturers prefer to produce components intended for artificial intelligence, which reduces the available stocks for smartphones and computers. We also learned yesterday that Apple had agreed to pay double the usual rate to Samsung to secure the RAM necessary for the production of the iPhone 17, without even attempting to negotiate. Amid this price surge, analytics firm Counterpoint Research has just published a report that reveals the average amount of RAM present in iPhones, and the figure has never been higher.

Nearly 10 GB of RAM on average per iPhone

According to Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint, the average RAM of iPhones sold in December 2025 reached almost 10 GB, compared to 7.8 GB a year earlier. This figure represents a record increase of 2.2 GB in just one year. This increase is largely explained by the switch to 12 GB of RAM on the iPhone 17 Procompared to 8 GB on the iPhone 16 Pro. Apple had, however, gotten into the habit of increasing memory very gradually over the years, counting on the software optimization of iOS to compensate for the delay compared to Android smartphones.

© 9to5Mac

This shift responds to a need that you have undoubtedly guessed, as the subject has come up on the table recently… artificial intelligence. The Apple firm is indeed preparing its iPhones to run Apple Intelligence models locally, without needing to send your data to remote servers. This approach, however, requires much more RAM, hence this spectacular jump observed on the last generation.

Sharply rising manufacturing costs

This race for RAM also has a direct impact on the manufacturing price of iPhones. According to Counterpoint, memory now represents more than 10% of the total component cost of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, compared to 8% for the iPhone 12 Pro Max in 2020.

Counterpoint Research further points out that Apple dominates the segment of smartphones sold over $600 with more than 70% of sales, which pushes the RAM average upwards across this entire price range. High-end Android manufacturers have until now offered significantly more memory than iPhones, but this gap has been reduced considerably with the move to 12 GB on the Pro models.

On the entry-level smartphone side, however, the situation could become more complicated, because manufacturers do not have sufficient margins to absorb the increase in the price of RAM without cutting corners on other components such as the screen or the camera.

Apple seems to have anticipated this shortage better than its competitors, and the pricing strategy adopted for the next iPhones could also be a pleasant surprise.

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By: Keleops AG