Key Takeaways
- Apple is preparing a price increase of about $100 (around ₱6,200) for the iPhone 18 Pro line, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
- That would put the US starting price at $1,199 (around ₱74,000), up roughly 9 percent from the iPhone 17 Pro's $1,099 (around ₱67,800).
- TrendForce estimates the iPhone 18 Pro costs about 38 percent more to build, with memory alone jumping from about 10 percent to 34 percent of component cost.
- No Philippine prices exist yet — the iPhone 18 lineup is expected in September.
Apple looks set to become the next company to pass on the cost of the global memory shortage. In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said an iPhone price increase "remains inevitable," and that Apple has been closely watching Samsung and Google, which each raised their latest flagship prices by about $100 (around ₱6,200), MacRumors reports. Matching them would take the iPhone 18 Pro to a $1,199 (around ₱74,000) starting price when the lineup launches in September alongside Apple's first foldable.
Why the iPhone 18 costs so much more to make
The driver is memory — the DRAM and NAND chips that every phone needs and that AI data centers are now buying in enormous volumes. TrendForce estimates that the bill of materials for a 256GB iPhone 18 Pro is up about 38 percent over the equivalent iPhone 17 Pro, and that memory prices have risen five- to sevenfold since the start of 2025.
The research firm's numbers show how quickly the balance has shifted:
- A year ago, memory made up roughly 10 percent of the phone's component cost.
- By the third quarter of 2026, that share reaches about 34 percent.
- By the first half of 2027, TrendForce expects memory to exceed 40 percent of the total.
Against a 38 percent cost jump, a 9 percent retail increase is what Gurman calls a "fairly modest bump" — a sign Apple plans to absorb a large share of the hit. The company has already warned investors of pressure on its gross margins this quarter, and TrendForce expects Apple to give up part of its margin the way it did with recent MacBook launches. Gurman also notes the new Apple Upgrade subscription program could soften the blow by spreading a phone's cost across monthly payments. TrendForce adds one more warning for bargain hunters: Apple may raise prices on older iPhone models too, to help offset memory costs across the lineup.
What it means for Filipino buyers
No official Philippine prices for the iPhone 18 series have been announced, and none will exist until Apple confirms local pricing around launch. But the direction of travel is clear, because the same memory squeeze has already reached Philippine shelves: Sony raised the PS5 Pro's local price to ₱64,995, and Amazon lifted Echo, Kindle, and Fire TV prices by up to 60 percent for the same reason. A $100 US increase rarely translates one-to-one here — peso pricing also carries taxes and currency movement — so Filipinos planning an upgrade should budget for the local equivalent landing above a straight conversion.
If you are deciding between buying now and waiting: the iPhone 17 lineup's current prices may not survive the transition either, given TrendForce's note about older models. For most buyers, the practical move is to watch Apple's September announcement for confirmed Philippine prices before making a call — and to treat any pre-launch peso figure circulating online as an estimate, not a commitment.
We have covered other early details of the lineup, including the iPhone 18 Pro retail box leak that hinted at a Sky Blue color and a variable-aperture camera.
