iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max can be Apple’s most expensive phones yet, here is why
Follow UsApple CEO Tim Cook has called price increases "unavoidable"
The iPhone 18 Pro Max could see a price hike of $200-250 globally
Analysts expect India prices to rise more steeply than global prices
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are expected to launch in September and there is growing consensus among analysts that they will cost noticeably more than the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max did at launch. The reason has nothing to do with new features but everything to do with a global memory chip shortage that Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company can no longer absorb on its own.
SurveyWhy iPhone prices are going up
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Cook said price increases are “unfortunately unavoidable.” He explained that Apple has tried to shield customers from rising component costs for as long as possible, but that “the situation has become unsustainable.” The driver is surging global demand for DRAM and NAND flash memory, largely from AI and data centre companies that are buying up supply faster than manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron can produce it. Cook described the scale of the price fluctuation in striking terms: “This is a hundred-year flood. I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.” Memory and storage chip costs rose 93-98% sequentially in the March quarter alone, according to industry tracker TrendForce, with a further 58-63% sequential rise expected in the June quarter.
Cook did not specify which products or when prices would change, but Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes an announcement is close. “Regarding Apple price hikes, have to imagine these are fairly imminent,” Gurman posted on X, suggesting Apple could tie the increase to its annual Back to School promotion rather than waiting for the iPhone 18 launch in the fall. “Either way this is happening soon. Not a fall thing,” he added.
How much more could the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max cost
Estimates vary, but all point in the same direction. Research firm TechInsights estimates Apple would need to add roughly $270 to the iPhone 18 Pro’s price to protect its margins, pushing it to around $1,299 from the iPhone 17 Pro’s $1,099. The Wall Street Journal’s own analysis puts the ceiling closer to $1,399 once a more expensive camera system is factored in. IDC India research manager Upasana Joshi offers a narrower range specific to the Pro and Pro Max individually: a $50-80 increase for the Pro model and a steeper $200-250 increase for the Pro Max.
What this means for India
The impact in India is expected to be sharper than the global increase. According to a report by The Economic Times’ Subhrojit Mallick, Omdia analyst Sanyam Chaurasia estimates that a 5-10% global price hike could translate into a 15-16% increase in India once currency depreciation, component import duties and broader inflation are factored in. Exact rupee pricing for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max has not been indicated yet, but the compounding effect of a higher dollar price plus India-specific cost factors suggests buyers here should expect a more noticeable jump than what US buyers see.
Apple has already pulled back on affordability measures in India ahead of the launch, the Economic Times reported, citing IDC India research manager Upasana Joshi. According to Joshi, the company stopped offering no-cost EMI schemes of 12 to 24 months on existing iPhone models starting this year, even though regular EMI options remain available. She described this as an indirect hit on shipments, since no-cost EMI had been an important driver of upgrades for price-sensitive buyers. In-store discounts on current models have also been scaled back.
As a result, IDC has revised its India shipment forecast for this year down to roughly flat growth, projecting 14-15 million iPhone units, compared to its earlier expectation of double-digit volume growth, according to the Economic Times. Joshi noted that Pro model buyers tend to be more flexible than base model buyers, so the price hikes are unlikely to significantly dent sales of the Pro and Pro Max specifically, which together make up around 30% of Apple’s total India volume. The bigger risk is to overall shipment momentum, which Joshi says will depend heavily on supply availability and the extent of discounting on the older iPhone 17 during the festive season later this year.
Chaurasia expects many Indian buyers facing higher prices to either delay their upgrade entirely or opt for older, cheaper iPhone models instead of buying into the latest generation at launch.
