For months, the smartphone industry has been caught up in an unprecedented memory supply crunch, thanks to soaring RAM prices. While most brands have either raised prices or cut corners to offset the pressure, Apple has been largely absorbing the impact. That, however, is about to change as Apple will soon raise the prices of not just its smartphones but other products as well.
Apple to Raise Prices of iPhones Soon
In an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple's soon-to-be ex-CEO, Tim Cook, has confirmed that upcoming Apple products will see a noticeable price hike due to the ongoing RAM crisis and supply chain constraints. This confirms that Apple iPhones in the future are going to be more expensive than before.
He has revealed that for so long, Apple has tried to keep the prices of its products in check so as not to pass the burden on to the consumer. However, with the market situation going downhill daily, the ultimate decision not to raise prices has become "unsustainable".
This is true because brands like OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo and more have raised prices of their phones (check our dedicated smartphone price tracker) more than once, iPhones have practically remained unaffected. They have neither seen any instance of base model discontinuation nor any major price hikes.
Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” he said. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.
— Tim Cook
Now, all eyes are on the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and the all-new iPhone Fold. All three are expected to debut in September 2026 and we know that the folding iPhone will become the most expensive iPhone yet.
However, it also seems like the Pro and Pro Max models will likely see a significant rise compared to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. As per reports, we can expect to see a 20% price increment on the iPhone 18 lineup, or an addition of $270 (approximately Rs 25,500) on the current pricing.
Furthermore, Cook has also revealed that, like DRAM, storage has also become increasingly scarce and expensive to source, thanks to the huge memory and bandwidth allocation to AI companies for data centres.
There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases. We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.
— Tim Cook
We have already seen glimpses of this as the base 256 GB Mac Mini, which cost Rs 59,900, has already been discontinued and it now starts at Rs 79,900 for 512 GB. Even the MacBook Air M5 launched with 512 GB of base storage, unlike the 256 GB version of the MacBook Air M4.
That said, with Cook officially confirming iPhone price hikes, it is only a matter of time before we see every other Apple product selling for more than what they actually launched for. It is unclear at the time of writing if the price hikes will apply to existing iPhone, Mac, iPad and more models as well. However, with Tim Cook stepping down as Apple CEO, it's now up to John Ternus to handle the RAM crisis pressure going forward.
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