iPhone 18 Pro Prices May Rise 10 to 20 Percent, TrendForce Says
Despite the cost pressure, TrendForce expects Apple to absorb part of the increase itself, prioritizing market share over full cost pass-through amid cautious consumer spending.
Key Facts
- TrendForce projects the iPhone 18 series will cost 10 to 20 percent more than the previous model, based on research released September 3.
- MacRumors estimates the iPhone 18 Pro will start at 1,249 to 1,299 dollars (roughly 220,000 to 230,000 yen) and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at 1,349 to 1,399 dollars (about 230,000 to 250,000 yen).
- The current iPhone 17 Pro starts at 1,099 dollars (194,800 yen in Japan) and the iPhone 17 Pro Max at 1,199 dollars (214,800 yen in Japan).
- TrendForce says memory costs for the 256GB Pro model could rise nearly 400 percent year over year in the third quarter of 2026, with total component costs up about 38 percent.
- A Weibo leak estimates the A20 Pro chip will have a 7-core GPU, up from 6 cores in the A19 Pro, and memory bandwidth expanding from 64-bit to 96-bit.
Reporting from 1 source: ASCII.jp.
Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 18 Pro series at a special event on September 9 (September 10 in Japan), and price projections from Taiwan's TrendForce suggest a significant increase over the current models. According to TrendForce's smartphone market research released September 3, the iPhone 18 series could cost 10 to 20 percent more than the previous generation. U.S. outlet MacRumors applied TrendForce's earlier June forecast of a 14 to 18 percent rise to these projections, estimating the iPhone 18 Pro will start at 1,249 to 1,299 dollars, or roughly 220,000 to 230,000 yen in Japan, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max could start at 1,349 to 1,399 dollars, about 230,000 to 250,000 yen. That would mark an increase of roughly 25,000 to 35,000 yen over the current iPhone 17 Pro, which starts at 1,099 dollars (194,800 yen in Japan), and the iPhone 17 Pro Max at 1,199 dollars (214,800 yen in Japan). TrendForce attributes the higher prices mainly to surging memory costs, which it says could rise nearly 400 percent year over year for the 256GB Pro model in the third quarter of 2026. Total component costs for that model are seen climbing about 38 percent year over year.
The A20 Pro chip expected inside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max adds a seventh GPU core over the A19 Pro's six, a roughly 16 percent increase, according to a Weibo user who posted layout analysis on August 30. The same analysis puts the CPU at six cores, two high-performance and four high-efficiency, with the high-efficiency cores' shared L2 cache growing from 6MB to 8MB while the high-performance cores keep 16MB.
- MacRumors reports the leak points to memory bandwidth growing from 64-bit to 96-bit, a 1.5x jump, which typically scales with graphics performance.
- TrendForce also forecasts Apple's first foldable iPhone, tentatively named iPhone Ultra, at 2,099 to 2,299 dollars (roughly 370,000 to 400,000 yen), with max storage configurations exceeding 3,000 dollars (about 520,000 yen).
- The standard iPhone 18 is not expected at the September 9 event and may be delayed to spring 2027, but TrendForce predicts a similar 10 to 20 percent rise for it.
- Last year the iPhone 17 Pro Max held its price and the iPhone 17 Pro rose only 100 dollars in the U.S.; this year memory costs are climbing on demand from AI data centers, hitting the whole industry.
- TrendForce says the memory cost surge cannot be absorbed by negotiating lower prices on other components.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- ASCII.jp アップル「iPhone 18 Pro」22万円超え？