IPhone 18 Pro Price Increase Likely as Apple Absorbs Memory Costs
What You Need to Know
- Tim Cook stated Apple can no longer absorb rising memory and storage costs, making price increases unavoidable.
- IPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are likely candidates for price increases due to higher DRAM component costs.
- Apple plans to delay the standard iPhone 18 launch to spring 2027, breaking its traditional fall release cycle.
- MacOS 27 Golden Gate will add Siri AI improvements and new Apple Intelligence features in fall release.
Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal this week that Apple can no longer absorb rising memory and storage costs, making price increases “unavoidable.” He offered no specifics on which products will cost more or by how much, only that Apple has been “trying to shield” customers but the “situation has become unsustainable.” That admission lands at an awkward moment: one analyst firm had just claimed Apple does not plan to raise the price of the standard iPhone 18.
That apparent contradiction makes more sense when you look at the memory picture. The iPhone 18 is expected to ship with 12GB of RAM, up from the current generation, specifically to support the most powerful on-device AI models Apple unveiled at WWDC. More memory means higher component costs, and the margin math on Pro models already shows how thin the buffer gets when DRAM prices spike. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, launching in September, are the more likely candidates for a price bump.
A Delayed Standard iPhone Complicates the Picture
The standard iPhone 18 may not arrive in September at all. Rumors have circulated for some time that Apple plans to push the base model to a spring 2027 launch, breaking from the unified fall release Apple has held for years. The chairman of Apple supplier Largan Precision essentially confirmed the change this week without naming Apple directly, which is about as close to an on-record confirmation as supply chain news gets.
On the software side, macOS 27 Golden Gate is in beta ahead of a fall release, adding Siri AI improvements alongside Liquid Glass design updates and new Apple Intelligence features. iOS 27 is also expanding landscape mode to a wider set of built-in apps, including Apple Music, Health, Reminders, and Find My, among others.
Away from hardware, Chase announced that its Sapphire Preferred card will now include a complimentary one-year Apple TV+ subscription, valued at $12.99 per month in the US, for cards activated by December 31, 2026. Apple One subscribers get a $7.50 monthly discount instead, an option that extends to the Sapphire Reserve card as well.
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