iPhone 17 line models at an Apple store in Taiwan, in a photo from September 19, 2025 Reuters/Ann Wang Apple plans to raise product prices due to rising memory chip costs. The statement was made by company CEO Tim Cook to the Wall Street Journal. "Unfortunately, price increases are inevitable," Cook said.
"We are doing everything we can to mitigate the massive increases being passed on to us and trying to protect our customers from these increases, but the situation has become unsustainable." 🗒️ Have a news tip? Send it to g1 The executive did not provide details on when the price hike will be implemented or which products will be affected. The company is expected to launch the iPhone 18 in September and introduce the line's first foldable model, according to the WSJ. However, the report indicated that price hikes could arrive even earlier, for Mac and iPad models. Now on g1 The price of the iPhone 18 Pro would jump from $1,099 to $1,299 if the manufacturer decides to maintain its profit margin, according to a projection by consulting firm TechInsights provided to the Wall Street Journal. Memory chip supply has been shrinking as manufacturers direct their investments toward producing more advanced chips geared toward artificial intelligence data centers. Cook stated that storage chips are also a problem, but RAM chips are causing the most concern. 🤔 RAM chips (an acronym for "Random Access Memory") temporarily store data used by a device.
When an app is opened on a phone, the RAM holds the information needed for the program to run properly. Although most commonly associated with phones and computers, memory chips are also present in smart TVs, tablets, video game consoles, smartwatches, robot vacuums, cars, printers, and more. The Apple CEO also said that consumers want to buy phones and other devices, but "memory manufacturers are passing on exorbitant price increases." He added that he has never seen raw material price increases quite like this. "This is a once-in-a-hundred-years flood," he stated.
"We undoubtedly need memory prices and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That is the fundamental issue." The smartphone market is set to record its largest drop in history in 2026, said consulting firm IDC in a projection released in February.
Manufacturers are expected to ship a total of 1.1 billion units worldwide this year, down 12.9% from 2025. At the time, the consultancy also stated that the situation is not expected to improve until mid-2027. It projected that sales will grow by only 2% in 2027 and see a recovery in 2028 with a 5.2% increase.
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