Apple is preparing to increase prices for its upcoming iPhone 18 Pro lineup this autumn as surging component costs squeeze profit margins.
Industry analysts project the base model of the flagship smartphone will start at $1,399. Meanwhile, the top-tier iPhone 18 Pro Max equipped with 1TB of storage could approach the $2,000 mark.
A sharp rise in manufacturing expenses is driving the anticipated price hike. Analysts estimate the 1TB NAND memory module alone will cost the technology giant more than $250. Furthermore, high global demand from artificial intelligence hardware developers has driven up the price of RAM chips.
The introduction of the new A20 Pro processor will act as an additional financial burden. The chip is expected to be manufactured using an advanced 2-nanometre process. Producing these semiconductors costs significantly more than previous generations, particularly during the initial stages of technological adoption.
While Apple has secured cost reductions for displays and certain other parts, these savings will only partially offset the overarching manufacturing increases.
To maintain profitability, analysts believe the company may abandon uniform price hikes across the entire smartphone range. Apple is instead expected to disproportionately raise the retail cost of high-capacity models to absorb the component inflation.
