Apple price hike warning – what it means for iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max
Apple price hike warning – what it means for iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max
https://www.finder.com.au/news/apple-price-hike-warning-what-it-means-iphone-18-pro-max
Publish Date: 2026-06-22 00:54:00
Source Domain: www.finder.com.au
- Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned of price increases due to the surging cost of memory and storage chips.
- With the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max set to launch in September, your next upgrade could cost you more.
- Rumours suggest prices could go up by US$200, meaning the entry-level iPhone 18 Pro could cost around $2,359 here in Australia.
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading to the iPhone 18 Pro or Pro Max, you might want to brace yourself.
Apple has flagged that prices are going up. And while it didn’t specify exact products, with the new iPhones just a few months away, it’s not hard to read between the lines.
What did Apple actually say?
In an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal, outgoing CEO Tim Cook said it straight up: “Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable.”
According to Cook, the cost of memory and storage chips has surged.
AI infrastructure is driving enormous global demand for these components, and that’s pushed prices up across the entire tech industry.
It’s the same reason Samsung raised prices on its Galaxy S26 range earlier this year.
“We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook said.
He didn’t name the iPhone 18 series specifically, or any product, for that matter.
But Cook steps down as CEO on 1 September, handing over to hardware chief John Ternus just as the new iPhones are expected to hit shelves.
The timing of this announcement, analysts say, was deliberate so that Ternus doesn’t have to deal with the blowback of the price hikes.
Postpaid Device and SIM
…
