Newly published researched suggests the components Apple needs to build the forthcoming iPhone 18 Pro Max will cost $300 more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max and, if those findings prove accurate, we can’t imagine Apple will be absorbing those losses.
According to Counterpoint Research‘s findings, the bill of materials will cost significantly more for the 1TB iPhone 18 Pro Max than the current iPhone 17 Pro Max 1TB.
The research suggests that the 1TB of NAND flash memory and the 12GB of DRAM memory for this year’s model will almost eclipse the entire price of last year’s model. As expected given the current shortage of both of those components, that’s where the bulk of the increase will come. The 2nm A20 SoC will also contribute to the increased expense bill, while the display and camera costs will also go up slightly.
Check out the graphic below:
It all contributes to what the research company predicts will be an average $200 increase in retail costs that will still leave Apple $100 in the hole compared to the 2025 model.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max 1TB costs $1599 so that means a potential $1799 price for the iPhone 18 Pro Max 1TB. Those price hikes will likely apply to the 2TB version too and might even be a little more significant given the doubled storage. It probably means we’re looking at the first iPhone to be priced at over $2,000. It might not make that iPhone Fold/Ultra – rumoured to be priced at about $2,500 – look too bad.
“Apple is expected to apply different retail price increases across different storage variants, to avoid the loss of gross profit on large-capacity models,” Counterpoint adds.
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