Apple could be preparing an iPhone price increase for this fall. The move would follow Google and Samsung, both of which raised prices on their flagship phones this year.
The iPhone faces the same memory and chip shortages that pushed Apple to jack up Mac and iPad prices back in June. And while an iPhone price increase now looks all but certain, Apple appears to be trying to keep the hike modest.
iPhone price increase looks likely this fall
With component costs skyrocketing due to a surge in AI infrastructure spending, Apple is running out of ways to shelter its most important product from price hikes. For Apple, the calculation is simple but risky: How much more can it charge its most loyal customers before an increasingly expensive iPhone starts dampening consumers’ urge to upgrade to the latest, greatest device?
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said an iPhone price increase “remains inevitable” in his Power On newsletter Sunday, given the ongoing supply chain pressure.
Apple already raised prices across nearly every other product line two months ago. Macs and iPads went up by about 23% on average. Home devices and the Vision Pro headset also received price increases. But Apple left the iPhone untouched at that time.
Watching the competition and calibrating a response
Meanwhile, Apple’s main competitors already hiked prices of their phones. Samsung raised U.S. prices for its phones in April, and Google followed in August, pushing the Pixel 11 line up by almost $100 across the board.
Apple is expected to follow suit.
“The only question is how far Apple will go,” Gurman wrote. “The company has been watching how Samsung and Google respond to higher component costs. Both raised prices on their latest phones by about $100. Matching that would put the iPhone 18 Pro at $1,199, up about 9%.”
Why the iPhone hike could be smaller than the Mac and iPad increases
Gurman called a possible $100 price increase for the iPhone 18 lineup “fairly modest” given the ongoing global memory crunch fueled by AI investments. The company already flagged pressure on its profit margins this quarter due to surging component costs. That warning suggests Apple plans to eat part of the hit instead of passing the full bill to customers.
There’s a business reason for that restraint, especially when it comes to the iPhone. The beloved phone remains Apple’s main revenue driver, generating $54.3 billion in the company’s most recent quarter. A $100 hike would keep the iPhone close to Samsung’s pricing. It would also avoid the brutal psychological impact of the huge hikes that stunned Mac and iPad buyers earlier this year.
We’ve heard rumors of impending iPhone price increases before, but they did not materialize. Nothing is official yet. Apple typically reveals its iPhone pricing at a September event, which is expected to skip the standard iPhone this year and only include the iPhone 18 Pro lineup and the first folding iPhone.
Anurag Chawake is a tech-focused writer specializing in smartphones, apps and consumer technology. His interest in computers began during the Windows 98 era, eventually leading him to explore everything from operating systems to mobile devices and PC hardware. Anurag previously contributed to The Indian Express, covering Apple, Android, gaming and the broader technology landscape.
