iPhone 18 series starting price will be the same as its predecessor.
Rising storage prices have become a major obstacle for the consumer electronics industry, one that no manufacturer can avoid, even giants like Apple are facing huge price increases.
According to a recent report from TrendForce, Samsung may raise the price of LPDDR memory for iPhones by more than 80% month-over-month, while SK Hynix may even raise it by nearly 100%.
Ming-Chi Kuo commented that the price increase of LPDDR in the first quarter was in line with the general consensus in the industry, while the price increase of NAND Flash was slightly lower than expected.
iPhone memory pricing has changed from being negotiated every six months to being negotiated quarterly, and prices will rise again in the second quarter of 2026, with the quarter-on-quarter increase expected to be similar to that of the first quarter.
The rise in memory prices has directly squeezed the gross profit margin of iPhones, but Apple has chosen to temporarily absorb the increased costs and plans to make up for the profit loss on the hardware side through its service business in the future.
Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple’s strategy for the iPhone 18 series is to avoid raising prices as much as possible, or at least keep the starting price unchanged.
The prices for this year’s iPhone 17/Air series are as follows:
iPhone 17: 256GB ¥5999; 512GB ¥7999
iPhone Air: 256GB ¥7999; 512GB ¥9999; 1TB ¥11999
iPhone 17 Pro: 256GB ¥8999; 512GB ¥10999; 1TB ¥12999
iPhone 17 Pro Max: 256GB ¥9999; 512GB ¥11999; 1TB ¥13999; 2TB ¥17999
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