Apple will raise iPhone prices following its June increases across Macs, iPads, and other product lines. Two months ago, Apple boosted prices on nearly every major category outside the iPhone, with affected Macs and iPads rising roughly 23 percent on average. The MacBook Air jumped $200, the Mac Studio climbed $500, and the iPad Air went up $150. Memory and silicon shortages are now applying the same pressure to iPhones, making an increase inevitable.
As per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company has been watching how Samsung and Google respond to higher component costs. Both raised prices on their latest phones by roughly $100. Matching that move would place the iPhone 18 Pro at $1,199, up approximately 9 percent. Given the severity of the memory crunch, that would be a fairly modest bump and suggest Apple is absorbing some added costs itself rather than passing all of them to customers.
Margin Pressure and Strategic Restraint
Apple has already warned of pressure on gross margins this quarter. This suggests it is not passing on all growing expenses. The company has reasons not to push prices too far. A $100 increase would keep the iPhone broadly aligned with Samsung’s pricing territory and avoid the sticker shock of steeper hikes imposed on Macs and iPads. That matters for demand in an already pressured smartphone market.
Still, Apple has room to go higher, the Mac and iPad increases were substantially larger, and the iPhone’s loyal customer base gives Apple flexibility to absorb prices without the same volume risk as other devices.
The Subscription Solution
The new Apple Upgrade subscription program could further soften the impact of higher retail pricing by distributing costs across monthly payments. This approach would allow Apple to maintain price increases while making upgrades feel more accessible to existing customers, protecting both margin and volume as the company navigates component cost inflation heading into the fall launch. However, this program is limited to just the United States so it’ll be interesting to see how this will impact other markets.
