Apple poised to unveil most expensive iPhone yet, fuelled by memory price surge

Apple's upcoming flagship iPhone 18 Pro may carry a price tag of up to US$1,319 for the base model, as soaring memory costs push smartphone prices to new heights, a recent report suggests. Market research firm TrendForce predicts a 10 to 20 percent price surge for the new iPhone lineup, driven by escalating memory costs. Compared to the base prices of $1,099 for the iPhone 17 Pro and $1,199 for the Pro Max variant, consumers will face a significant increase.

However, TrendForce considers this a "reasonable pricing strategy" considering memory costs for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro are estimated to be nearly 400 percent higher than last year.

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and its first foldable phone during a product launch in California on Wednesday morning. The foldable model, featuring a dual-camera setup and a conventional capacitive fingerprint sensor, could start from $2,099 to $2,299, with the premium version potentially costing more than $3,000.

Initial production of the foldable model is currently limited to a few hundred units per day to meet Apple's stringent quality standards, according to a Friday report by Nikkei Asia citing anonymous sources.

This projected price hike comes amid a severe memory supply crunch, triggered by surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, disrupting the consumer electronics industry. The memory crunch is expected to shrink global smartphone shipments by 16.7 percent this year, marking the steepest annual contraction on record, as reported by IDC.

Major smartphone manufacturers, including Huawei, Xiaomi, and Honor, have also increased prices for existing models, with some mark-ups reaching 1,000 yuan (US$149). Globally, over 40 percent of smartphone models have seen price hikes this year, a first for the industry, as reported by Counterpoint Research. New launches were 25 percent more expensive than last year, while retail prices for existing models surged by an average of 15 percent, with some models nearly doubling in price, as the report indicated.