TrendForce says reminiscence now makes up 34% of the iPhone 18 Professional’s element price, up from 10% a yr in the past. Consumers ought to count on worth rises of $100 to $300 over the earlier era iphones.
Apple raised costs on Mac, iPad, Apple TV, HomePod and Imaginative and prescient Professional in June 2026, with the same old suspect of RAMageddon being the core problem. On the time it held iPhone pricing regular, however that would quickly change. With the brand new iPhone 18 Professional resulting from be launched subsequent month (the bottom spec mannequin will comply with subsequent yr, based on reviews), customers in all probability must brace themselves for some steep will increase.
Taiwanese semiconductor analysis agency TrendForce has published a report estimating that the invoice of supplies for a 256GB iPhone 18 Professional is working roughly 38% above the equal iPhone 17 Professional.
The principle wrongdoer is reminiscence
The motive force is nearly completely reminiscence prices. A yr in the past, reminiscence made up about 10% of an iPhone’s element price. In TrendForce’s Q3 2026 estimate, that is risen to round 34%. It’s going to worsen too. According to different analyst reviews that we’re nowhere close to the height of all this but, the agency tasks these prices will cross 40% within the first half of 2027.
It may impressively sufficient have been even worse, however costs for different elements haven’t risen anyplace close to as a lot. Whereas reminiscence costs usually have climbed five- to sevenfold for the reason that begin of 2025, panel and software processor prices, traditionally the 2 greatest line gadgets in a telephone’s invoice of supplies, have really shrunk.
The iPhone 18 Professional will likely be something from $100 to $300 costlier than the iPhone 17 Professional.
Apple’s acquired a historical past of absorbing some prices and has the famously beneficiant margins to be obtainable to take action, particularly if it’s attempting to guard quantity gross sales numbers. However these reminiscence price rises are excessive, and it’s estimated that the iPhone 18 Professional will likely be something from $100 to $300 costlier than the $1099 worth of the iPhone 17 Professional when it launched final yr.
What’s extra, it’s strongly recommended that the iPhone 17 will rise in worth from its present $799 place to begin on the similar time the brand new telephone is launched.
iPhone 18 to rise as nicely?
As for the iPhone 18, when that follows in six months’ time, it’s doable that Apple can have had extra time to mainly lower prices elsewhere to permit for the elevated reminiscence prices. That would imply all the things from a less expensive, dimmer display screen, to a lower-spec A20 chip with fewer GPU cores, and extra elements shared with the entry-level 18e, additionally anticipated on the similar time. Some reviews recommend the iPhone 18 will want 12 GB RAM to run iOS 27’s new Siri AI voice customisation and dictation options, although analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has claimed Apple will maintain it at 9 GB, which would go away these options unsupported.
Given the truth that Apple is betting loads on the introduction of Siri AI, that might be stunning. However one factor the present reminiscence state of affairs teaches us is that such surprises are very a lot changing into the brand new regular.
