Samsung Electronics and Apple are scaling back orders for smartphone components as soaring memory prices squeeze margins, threatening fourth-quarter earnings at Samsung Display, which draws nearly two-thirds of its revenue from the two handset makers.

According to industry sources Monday, Samsung's mobile division has asked suppliers to trim fourth-quarter component deliveries by 20 to 30 percent from earlier plans. Apple has reportedly cut October orders for certain iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max parts by 15 to 20 percent.

The pullback comes during a period when flagship launches typically lift orders for high-end OLED panels. Although Samsung generally reduces handset production ahead of its next Galaxy S launch, the latest reported cuts are steeper than expected.

Samsung Display has little room to escape the fallout. Its 2025 audited accounts show that customer groups widely believed to be Apple and Samsung Electronics generated 40.4 percent and 22.4 percent of annual revenue, respectively. Together, they accounted for 18.66 trillion won ($14.1 billion), or 62.8 percent of sales.

A drop in premium OLED orders could hurt profits more than shipment volumes suggest. Weaker factory utilization would raise per-panel fixed costs, while fewer high-margin screens would drag down the sales mix.

"The bigger concern isn't necessarily how many fewer panels Samsung Display sells, but which panels it loses orders for," an industry source said. "If the cuts fall heavily on premium iPhone models, the damage to operating profit could be disproportionately large, especially if factory utilization also starts to decline."

The strain originates in the memory market. Chipmakers are directing production capacity toward lucrative server DRAM and high-bandwidth memory for AI data centers, making mobile memory far more expensive. Market researcher TrendForce estimated that prices for LPDDR5X, used in smartphones, jumped 78 to 83 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months.

Global smartphone shipments fell 20 percent on-year in the third quarter, their lowest level for the period since 2012, according to Counterpoint Research. Samsung's mobile and networks business posted a 700 billion won operating loss in the second quarter despite higher revenue, even as its semiconductor division benefited from the memory boom. Apple raised Korean starting prices for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max by 200,000 won each.

The squeeze could extend to panel pricing. Display panel research firm UBI Research said this month that handset makers are pressing OLED suppliers for discounts to offset higher memory costs, adding another threat to display makers' margins.

One possible cushion is Apple's newly released iPhone Duo, its first foldable handset, which went on sale Friday with OLED panels supplied exclusively by Samsung Display. Omdia expects the Korean supplier to account for 66 percent of global foldable display shipments this year as the market expands 44 percent to 29 million units.

"An exclusive deal for Apple's foldable phone is a major win, but it doesn't automatically make up for weaker orders from the regular iPhone lineup," another industry source said.

"Foldables are a higher-value business, but the volumes are still relatively small. The question is whether that growth can offset a slowdown in the much larger premium smartphone market," he added.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)