The iPhone 17 Pro, which doubled its base storage to 256GB and started at $1,099, is now being cited by analysts and industry researchers as the pricing benchmark that could soon be broken as memory chip shortages ripple through Apple's supply chain and push the cost of next year's iPhone 18 Pro sharply higher.
According to Taiwanese research firm TrendForce, the bill of materials for a 256GB iPhone 18 Pro is expected to rise by nearly 38 percent year over year compared with the iPhone 17 Pro, driven almost entirely by soaring memory prices. TrendForce's analysis found that memory's share of total component costs in the 256GB iPhone Pro models has jumped from around 10 percent a year ago to roughly 34 percent in the third quarter of 2026, and the firm projects that share will exceed 40 percent by the first half of 2027. Memory and storage, TrendForce noted, have effectively replaced the application processor and display as the dominant cost drivers in Apple's premium phones.
The iPhone 17 Pro itself was notable for breaking with Apple's prior storage tiers. Where the iPhone 16 Pro started at 128GB, the iPhone 17 Pro doubled that minimum to 256GB, according to MacRumors. TrendForce's latest reporting indicates the iPhone 18 Pro will hold the line at that same 256GB starting capacity rather than increasing it further, meaning the storage upgrade that made the iPhone 17 Pro stand out will not be repeated next year. Instead, TrendForce said, the extra manufacturing cost will show up almost entirely in the sticker price.
How much higher that price could go is still being debated. MacRumors reported that industry estimates point to iPhone 18 Pro starting prices in the United States landing $200 to $300 above the iPhone 17 Pro's launch price, which would put the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at as much as $1,399 and $1,499, respectively, if those projections hold.
Apple has already signaled that it is not immune to the memory squeeze. In June, the company raised prices across its Mac and iPad lines, along with the Apple TV, HomePod, HomePod mini, and Vision Pro, with increases ranging from $30 on the HomePod mini to as much as $1,300 on a high-end Mac Studio configuration, MacRumors reported. Apple attributed those hikes directly to the ongoing memory chip shortage, which has been fueled by data center operators buying up RAM and storage chips to build out AI server infrastructure. Apple CEO Tim Cook described the resulting price pressure as a
