The soaring prices of memory components have affected tech companies across the industry, with even Apple unable to absorb the costs fully. The Cupertino-based tech giant has already raised prices of several products in recent months, although the iPhone 17 series has so far avoided a similar fate in most markets. But that could change very soon. A new leak claims that Apple could announce a price hike for its flagship smartphone lineup very soon.
iPhone 17 Price Hike Tipped
Tipster Fixed Focus Digital claimed on Weibo that rumours are circulating about an iPhone 17 price revision taking effect on August 10 (via MacRumors). However, the tipster appeared less certain about whether the price change would actually happen. The post further claimed that Apple had cancelled plans to increase production capacity on some lines by 15 to 30 percent.
The tipster, however, did not specify which products this referred to.
The latest claim comes after Apple raised prices across several other product categories in June. In India, the company increased the prices of MacBooks, Macs, iPads, Apple TV models and HomePod speakers, with some products becoming as much as Rs. 1 lakh more expensive. The tech giant attributed the revisions to an unprecedented increase in DRAM and NAND flash storage prices, driven largely by growing demand for AI infrastructure.
The iPhone lineup was notably spared from that round of increases across the world, except for Japan. Apple has already raised iPhone prices in Japan, with the standard iPhone 17 reportedly becoming 11.3 percent more expensive.
This is not the first time that a price hike for the iPhone 17 lineup has been suggested. A previous report had claimed that Apple could increase the price of the standard iPhone 17 by Rs. 12,000, taking the 256GB model from its launch price of Rs. 82,900 to Rs. 94,990. Similar increases were also tipped for other models in the lineup, namely the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, although their revised prices were not revealed.
Meanwhile, there are also concerns that Apple's next-generation lineup, widely referred to as the iPhone 18 series, could be more expensive to manufacture.
A Counterpoint Research estimate suggests that the component cost of the iPhone 18 Pro Max 1TB variant could approach $900, compared to roughly $550 for the equivalent iPhone 17 Pro Max. The increase is reportedly being driven primarily by higher NAND storage and DRAM costs. Meanwhile, IDC has separately predicted that the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max could see price increases of up to $200 compared to the current models.
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