A new market intelligence report released on September 3, 2026 points out that Apple is expected to pay four times more for the memory of the iPhone 18 Pro, compared to the model launched the previous year.

The research company TrendForce points out that the technology giant will not pass on the entire impact to customers, increasingly looking to service revenues as a way to offset higher hardware manufacturing costs.

Apple had already announced significant price increases on most of its products in June, justifying that it had exhausted all possibilities to delay the measure, but found itself with no alternative.

At that time, the company did not raise the prices of existing iPhones, but the expectation is that this will change with the new models, with TrendForce indicating a drastic increase in memory costs.

Specifically for the 256GB Pro model, memory spending in the third quarter of 2026 is estimated to be almost 400% more than a year ago. Despite Apple’s efforts to negotiate lower prices for other components, these savings will likely not be enough to balance the pressure on total materials costs. Thus, an increase in retail prices seems increasingly inevitable while hardware costs remain high.

The forecast is that Apple will not transfer the entire increase in memory costs to the final price of the iPhone. Current estimates point to an increase of around US$100 over the iPhone 17 Pro.

This caution is justified, as substantial price adjustments lead even Apple’s most loyal consumers to postpone exchanging their products. TrendForce notes that the company does not want to sacrifice continued growth, as well as considering a weak macroeconomic environment that leads to more moderate consumption.

The consultancy also projects that the iPhone Ultra, Apple’s first foldable model, could be launched with a starting price of up to US$2,299, with the most advanced configuration costing more than US$3,000.