Apple may raise the price of the iPhone 18 Pro smartphone models by as much as $300 (about £223) according to a sobering message from a prominent analyst.
According to GF Securities researcher Jeff Pu, the iPhone 18 Pro range faces much higher build costs due to increased cost of producing the new 2 nanometer Apple 20 Pro chips and DRAM/NAND components. The current iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,099 so we may be looking at a $1399 starting price for Apple’s Pro smartphone range this year if Pu’s prediction comes to pass.
That would likely put a dent a lot of upgrade plans heading into the autumn, with Pu suggesting that the price increases alongside limited hardware updates could lead to demand issues.
In a quote on X, Pu said (via Neowin): “iPhone 18 Pro demand risk: Higher 2nm silicon and DRAM/NAND costs could drive a $250–300 price hike for iPhone 18 Pro/PM, creating demand uncertainty despite resilient iPhone 17 builds.”
As Counterpoint Research suggests, the bill of goods for the next-generation iPhone Pro Max 1TB could be $300 more expensive, which would almost guarantee some price increases being passed onto consumers.
The Apple Upgrade Program, the new lease-to-buy option now available to US shoppers, could come in handy here, helping iPhone fans to spread the cost over 12-24 months.
Apple has already raised prices of Macs, iPads, HomePod speakers, Apple TV and the Vision Pro headset, which outgoing CEO Tim Cook called “unavoidable.”
“We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook said back in June.
Thus far, the iPhone has remained immune to the changes, but that is highly likely to change come mid-September.
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