How much will iPhone 18 cost?
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that "price increases are inevitable" and said the company cannot continue to delay increasing product prices.
"Unfortunately, price increases are inevitable. We are doing our best to minimize sudden price increases and are trying to protect our customers from these price increases, but the situation has become unsustainable," CEO Tim Cook shared.
Although the head of Apple did not directly mention iPhone 18, this message implicitly affirms that the upcoming iPhone series will likely increase prices significantly, followed by other products such as iPad, MacBook... new generation.
According to market research company TechInsights, with the current increase in component prices, to maintain the same profit margin as before, Apple will have to increase the price of the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max by about 270 USD.
iPhone 17 Pro currently has a starting price of $1,099 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage version. According to Mike Howard, director of memory market analysis at TechInsights, the price of these components could quadruple this fall, when the iPhone 18 series is officially launched.
Analysis shows that Apple has to pay $39 for 12GB RAM on the iPhone 17 Pro, but Mike Howard predicts that "apple" will have to pay up to $145 for similar memory on the iPhone 18 Pro. Meanwhile, the memory price will increase from 13 USD on iPhone 17 to 51 USD on iPhone 18.
TechInsights experts say the total component and production cost of the iPhone 17 Pro is about 530 USD. This number can increase to 25%, equivalent to 726 USD for iPhone 18 Pro. If Apple maintains the same 47% profit margin as on the iPhone 17 Pro, the selling price of the iPhone 18 Pro could increase to 1,371 USD.
However, Apple does not sell products at such retail prices. "Apple" can reduce its profit margin to 44% to bring the starting price of iPhone 18 Pro to 1,299 USD. iPhone 18 Pro options with more storage add up to an additional $100.
The iPhone 18 Pro's $200 increase compared to its predecessor is considered acceptable, especially when the iPhone 18 Pro is equipped with a new generation A20 Pro chip for strong performance, a better camera system, and the Dynamic Island notch on the screen will be smaller in size.
Currently all information is still at the rumor level. It is likely that Apple will launch the iPhone 18 series in September, as a farewell to Tim Cook when he decides to leave the CEO position of Apple on September 1.