Apple could raise iPhone prices as rising memory and silicon costs add pressure to the company’s margins. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company is considering a price increase as higher component costs continue to affect its products.
iPhone price hike could follow Mac and iPad increases
Apple has already increased prices across several major product categories outside the iPhone, including Macs and iPads, amid rising memory and storage component costs. The same memory and silicon shortages are now affecting the iPhone, making a price increase likely.
Apple is watching how Samsung and Google are responding to higher component costs. Both companies have raised prices of their latest phones by around $100. If Apple follows the same approach, the iPhone 18 Pro could start at $1,199 in the US, compared with $1,099 currently. This would represent an increase of around 9%.
Why Apple may limit the increase
A $100 increase would allow Apple to recover some of the higher component costs while absorbing part of the additional expense itself. The company has already warned of pressure on gross margins this quarter, indicating that it is not passing all of its rising expenses on to customers.
Apple also has several factors to consider when deciding the size of the increase:
- It would keep the iPhone broadly within Samsung’s pricing range.
- It would avoid the larger increases applied to some Mac and iPad models.
- Apple has room to raise prices further given the iPhone’s established customer base.
- The new Upgrade subscription program could allow customers to manage a higher price through monthly payments.
The final pricing for the iPhone 18 series has not been confirmed. With the lineup expected to be unveiled in September, we may not have to wait much longer to know whether Apple will raise prices.