How iPhone 18 Pro's Memory Hike Might Shatter Prices

Picture this: you unwrap Apple's next flagship and the number on the price tag gives you pause. Not because of a flashy new color. Because the hidden parts inside just got a lot more expensive.

Tim Cook has already warned that memory shortages could force price hikes. Now The Wall Street Journal, citing research from TechInsights, has put numbers to that warning. The teardown firm estimates that the DRAM module Apple used to buy for around €36 last year could balloon to roughly €135 on the base iPhone 18 Pro, which is expected to ship with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The flash storage itself, once about €12, may now cost near €47.

When components rewrite the math

Those shifts add up. Building the base iPhone 17 Pro reportedly cost Apple roughly €541. TechInsights now pegs the iPhone 18 Pro's bill of materials at about €675. That's not pocket change for margins.

On the retail side, the base iPhone 17 Pro sold for about €1,022. If Apple wanted to preserve the same 47 percent gross margin on the new model, the phone would need to retail around €1,275. Companies rarely pass every cent along. After usual internal pricing tweaks, analysts say a likely retail point is about €1,208, which would still leave Apple with roughly a 44 percent gross margin.

There is another twist. Rumors point to a new variable-aperture camera system that could cost Apple at least 50 percent more than today’s module. Add that, and the base iPhone 18 Pro could creep into the low €1,300s.

And yes, the larger Pro Max will probably follow suit. The starting price for last year’s Pro Max was about €1,115. Expect the next generation to sit above that mark.

So what does this mean for buyers and for Apple’s playbook? Will Apple accept slimmer margins to keep headline prices stable, or will the company nudge retail tags higher and let customers absorb the squeeze? Either way, component-level disruptions are no longer background noise. They are reshaping what flagship phones will cost this year and beyond.

Bottom line: if memory and camera component prices stay elevated, the iPhone 18 Pro is likely to land in the low €1,300s for its base model.