Apple has increased prices across several existing iPhone models by $100 following the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro series and its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo. The increases reverse Apple’s usual pattern of discounting older models when a new iPhone generation arrives.
Customers visiting Apple’s iPhone store will now find the iPhone 16 starting at $799, the iPhone 17e at $699, the iPhone 17 at $899 and the iPhone Air at $1,099. Apple has also discontinued the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
The changes came after Apple introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at its September 9 event. The new Pro models themselves are also $100 more expensive than their predecessors, starting at $1,199 and $1,299 respectively.
Rising Component Costs Put Pressure on Prices
The increases follow months of warnings about higher memory and storage costs. Demand for those components has risen as AI companies and cloud providers expand data center infrastructure, putting pressure on supplies used across consumer electronics.
Former Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged in June that Apple could no longer absorb all of the increases in memory and storage costs. The company subsequently raised prices across parts of its Mac and iPad lineups while initially leaving the iPhone unchanged.
The Wall Street Journal reported that rising component costs contributed to Apple’s latest increases. Before the September event, some analysts had expected even larger increases of between $150 and $200 on certain new iPhone models.
Price changes are larger in some markets outside the United States. In India, iPhone prices have reportedly risen by around 20.5%.
Apple may also have more flexibility to raise prices as competitors including Samsung and Google increase the cost of their own premium smartphones. Its recently introduced Upgrade program allows customers to spread iPhone payments over 12 or 24 months and change devices at the end of the term, reducing the amount paid upfront.
The increases leave Apple selling older hardware at higher prices rather than using the arrival of its newest iPhones to lower entry costs. The iPhone 18 Pro models begin shipping September 18, while the $1,999 iPhone Duo arrives October 23.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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