On September 9, 2026, Apple unveiled its new flagship smartphones, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. At the same time, the company took the unusual step of raising prices by a flat $100 across its entire current iPhone lineup—including older models that remain on sale. This completely broke with Apple's longstanding practice of discounting previous-generation models by $100 when new models launch, in order to guide demand across different price tiers. The global memory supply crunch is now shaking the price strategy of a company renowned for having some of the strongest supply-chain negotiating leverage in the industry.
An Unprecedented $100 Hike Even on Older Models
The biggest surprise in this price revision isn't the pricing of the new products themselves, but the fact that the increase spread to existing models with no changes to their specifications. Under the new U.S. pricing on the Apple Store, the iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at $1,299—both $100 higher than the launch prices of the previous-generation iPhone 17 Pro series ($1,099 and $1,199, respectively). The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max have been discontinued, making way for the new-generation Pro models.
Meanwhile, every older model that remains on sale also saw its price raised by $100. The iPhone 16 went from $699 to $799, the iPhone 17e from $599 to $699, the iPhone 17 from $799 to $899, and the iPhone Air from $999 to $1,099. Raising the base price of existing products without any hardware spec changes or component updates is unprecedented in recent iPhone history.
What's more, the price increase for higher storage tiers became even steeper. In U.S. pricing, the price gap for choosing 1TB over the base storage widened by $300 compared to the previous generation, and for 2TB the gap jumped by $500.
| Model | Key Capacity | New U.S. Price | Change from Previous Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro | 256GB | $1,199 | +$100 (vs. 17 Pro) |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | 256GB | $1,299 | +$100 (vs. 17 Pro Max) |
| iPhone 18 Pro | 1TB | Prev. gen +$300 | +$300 |
| iPhone 18 Pro | 2TB | Prev. gen +$500 | +$500 |
| iPhone 17 | 256GB | $899 | +$100 |
| iPhone 17e | 256GB | $699 | +$100 |
| iPhone 16 | 128GB | $799 | +$100 |
| iPhone Air | 256GB | $1,099 | +$100 |
This pricing table reveals a clear reality: Apple did not raise prices by enhancing the appeal of higher-end models. Rather, the manufacturing cost structure of the entire product lineup shifted upward, forcing a mechanical shift of the whole price range.
Two Consecutive Months of Price Hikes Hit Japan Especially Hard
The price revision landed with even greater impact in the Japanese market than in the U.S. Just two months earlier, on July 18, 2026, Apple's Japan store had already adjusted prices on current models in response to currency fluctuations (a weaker yen). Now, in less than two months, this new round of increases driven by soaring memory costs has piled on top of that, resulting in a double price hike.
Looking at the price trajectory of continuously-sold standard models, the scale of the cumulative increase stands out. The iPhone 17 (256GB) launched at ¥129,800 in September 2025. It was revised to ¥142,800 in the July 2026 adjustment, and now to ¥159,800 in this September revision—a ¥17,000 increase from the July price, and a striking ¥30,000 increase from its original launch price.
Similarly, the entry-level iPhone 17e (256GB) launched in March 2026 at ¥99,800, under the ¥100,000 mark, but was revised to ¥107,800 in July and now stands at ¥124,800—a ¥17,000 increase from July and a ¥25,000 increase from launch. The iPhone 16 (128GB), sold as the discounted previous-generation model at ¥114,800 (as of the September 2025 revision), was also revised to ¥124,800 in July and ¥139,800 in September—up ¥15,000 from July and ¥25,000 from last year's discounted price. The slim iPhone Air (256GB) rose from ¥159,800 to ¥177,800 in July and now ¥189,800 in September—up ¥12,000 from July and ¥30,000 from its launch price.
| Model | Key Capacity | Launch Price | After July 2026 Revision | New September 2026 Price | Difference from July Revision | Cumulative Difference from Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro | 256GB | - | - | ¥219,800 | +¥25,000 (vs. 17 Pro) | +¥40,000 (vs. 17 Pro) |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | 256GB | - | - | ¥239,800 | +¥30,000 (vs. 17 Pro) | +¥50,000 (vs. 17 Pro) |
| iPhone 17 | 256GB | ¥129,800 | ¥142,800 | ¥159,800 | +¥17,000 | +¥30,000 |
| iPhone 17e | 256GB | ¥99,800 | ¥107,800 | ¥124,800 | +¥17,000 | +¥25,000 |
| iPhone 16 | 128GB | ¥114,800 | ¥124,800 | ¥139,800 | +¥15,000 | +¥25,000 |
| iPhone Air | 256GB | ¥159,800 | ¥177,800 | ¥189,800 | +¥12,000 | +¥30,000 |
The newly launched Pro series also sits at an extremely high price point. The iPhone 18 Pro (256GB) at ¥219,800 is ¥40,000 higher than the previous-generation iPhone 17 Pro's (256GB) launch price of ¥179,800, and ¥25,000 higher even than its post-July-revision price of ¥194,800 just before it was discontinued. The top-tier iPhone 18 Pro Max (256GB), priced at ¥239,800, is ¥50,000 higher than the 17 Pro Max's launch price of ¥189,800, and ¥30,000 higher than its post-July price of ¥209,800.
Pricing for higher-capacity models is even more extreme. The iPhone 18 Pro costs ¥254,800 for 512GB, ¥324,800 for 1TB, and ¥429,800 for 2TB. For the iPhone 18 Pro Max, 512GB is ¥274,800, 1TB is ¥344,800, and 2TB reaches ¥449,800. While Apple Trade In offers trade-in credit ranging from ¥43,000 to ¥135,000, the out-of-pocket cash outlay at purchase has been pushed to unprecedented levels.
Memory Costs Up 400%, Squeezing Component Budgets
The trigger for these price hikes is a sharp spike in procurement costs for DRAM and NAND flash memory, the core semiconductors that make up a smartphone. According to estimates from market research firm TrendForce, the total cost of memory components (LPDDR5X DRAM and NAND flash) used in the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro rose approximately 400% compared to the same period last year (Q3 2025). In other words, memory procurement costs alone roughly quadrupled.
This spike in memory costs has hit the device's overall bill of materials (BOM) hard. TrendForce estimates that the total component cost of the iPhone 18 Pro rose about 38% compared to the previous-generation iPhone 17 Pro. While hardware upgrades—such as the A20 Pro chip built on TSMC's 2nm process and a 48MP variable-aperture main camera—also contributed to the cost increase, memory-related cost hikes account for the majority of that rise.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had already flagged this abnormal situation back in June 2026. Cook described the price surge in the memory market as a "once-in-a-century flood," saying that in his more than 40 years of experience managing electronics supply chains, he had never seen such a rapid price swing in a commodity component. He indicated that it was no longer feasible for Apple to keep absorbing rising component costs through its own corporate efforts alone, as it had in the past.
Apple, which ships roughly 200 million smartphones annually, is the world's largest customer for semiconductor makers, and has long secured the most favorable procurement terms through long-term contracts and massive upfront payments. But this time, the memory price surge has reached a scale that even Apple's purchasing power cannot overcome. Cook's unusual warning became reality three months later in the form of a lineup-wide price increase.
AI Server Demand for HBM Drained the Supply
Why has the procurement environment for mobile memory deteriorated so severely? The primary cause lies in the global AI data center construction boom led by major cloud providers. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Meta are pouring enormous sums of money into securing High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and large-capacity server DRAM to expand their generative AI training and inference clusters.
Leading memory chipmakers—Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron Technology—have concentrated their manufacturing resources on producing HBM and server DRAM, which command extremely high profit margins. Not only silicon wafer allocation, but also cutting-edge TSV (through-silicon via) stacking lines and clean room floor space have been prioritized for ramping up AI infrastructure products. As a knock-on effect, production capacity for smartphone-grade LPDDR5X and commodity NAND flash has been squeezed.
While memory makers are pushing ahead with capacity expansion investments, building clean rooms, installing lithography equipment, and stabilizing yields all take years. Industry leaders have warned that resolving the memory shortage will take a long time—including the chairman of Taiwan's memory giant ADATA, who cautioned that supply constraints will persist—and there's no clear sign of when the supply side will recover.
In the PC market, major manufacturers including ASUS had already begun revising DRAM and SSD prices months earlier, but that wave has now reached even the iPhone, the pinnacle of the mobile industry. The fever for AI infrastructure investment has effectively drained the supply of memory that serves as the heart of consumer smartphones.
The Collapse of a Traditional Cycle and a Shift Toward High-Capacity Models
What this situation reveals on an industry level is that the very premise underlying Apple's long-established product cycle has crumbled. Normally, when a new flagship launches, the older model that remains on sale gets a $100 price cut to capture demand in the mainstream price tier. This time, however, instead of a discount, Apple pushed through a $100 increase—creating an effective $200 gap from what consumers expected the price of the older model to be.
Behind this decision lies a harsh reality on the manufacturing floor. Older models assembled in factories in 2026 also incorporate DRAM and NAND flash purchased under the currently inflated contract prices. The lower a model's selling price, the higher the proportion of memory costs within its total component cost. If Apple continued selling the iPhone 16 or iPhone 17e at their previous discounted prices, manufacturing costs would eat into the selling price, causing the hardware division's gross margin to plunge. Keeping older models at the same price or discounting them was simply not an option from a profitability standpoint.
At the same time, Apple is engineering a clever tiered pricing structure. While the iPhone 18 Pro's component cost rose 38%, the price increase for the base 256GB model was held to $100—avoiding a sharp jump in the entry price point that would create a psychological barrier to purchase. In exchange, Apple set extreme capacity premiums—$300 more for 1TB and $500 more for 2TB—designed to recoup profits from customers who want more storage.
For users considering an upgrade, this price revision marks a break from past conventions. The strategy of waiting for older models to get discounted and buying them cheaply no longer works. What's more, users who need large storage capacities—for things like high-resolution video recording—now face an even heavier cost burden.
As defending profit margins on hardware alone becomes increasingly difficult, Apple appears set to lean on its high-margin services business to shore up overall profitability. But as long as AI infrastructure expansion continues, there's little prospect that the memory supply crunch will ease anytime soon. The key thing to watch next is how well consumer demand holds up against this unusual across-the-board price increase, once pre-orders open on September 12, 2026, and sales begin on September 18.