{"id":207179,"date":"2026-01-27T17:19:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/apple-likely-to-keep-starting-price-for-iphone-18-flat-ming-chi-kuo\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T23:40:10","slug":"apple-likely-to-keep-starting-price-for-iphone-18-flat-ming-chi-kuo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/apple-likely-to-keep-starting-price-for-iphone-18-flat-ming-chi-kuo\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple likely to keep starting price for iPhone 18 flat – Ming-Chi Kuo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple likely to keep starting price for iPhone 18 flat – Ming-Chi Kuo<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/macdailynews.com\/2026\/01\/27\/apple-likely-to-keep-starting-price-for-iphone-18-flat-ming-chi-kuo\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-27 17:19:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: macdailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tiPhone 17<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s current strategy for the second-half 2026 iPhone 18 lineup prioritizes avoiding significant price increases wherever possible. The company aims to at least hold the starting price steady with the previous generation, which supports stronger marketing appeal and helps maintain consumer demand amid rising component costs (such as memory).<\/p>\n

This approach aligns with recent analyst insights, including from Ming-Chi Kuo, indicating Apple intends to absorb some cost pressures to keep base model pricing flat, even as higher-storage or premium variants may see selective adjustments.<\/p>\n

Ming-Chi Kuo via X:
\u200e<\/p>\n

\nA few quick thoughts on Apple\/iPhone memory price hikes:<\/p>\n

1. The 1Q26 LPDDR price hikes mentioned in the news are pretty close to what I\u2019ve heard. NAND flash increases, however, are a bit lower.<\/p>\n

2. iPhone memory pricing is now negotiated quarterly instead of every six months, so expect another hike in 2Q26. Right now, the 2Q26 QoQ increase looks similar to 1Q26.<\/p>\n

3. For most non-AI brands, even if you\u2019re willing to pay up, there\u2019s no guarantee you\u2019ll get the supply. The fact that Apple can lock in a deal like this shows just how much leverage they have.<\/p>\n

4. Higher memory costs will hit iPhone gross margins. But Apple\u2019s playbook is clear: use the market chaos to their advantage \u2014 secure the chips, absorb the costs, and grab more market share. They\u2019ll make it back later on the services side.<\/p>\n

5. The cost pressure from memory could be a hot topic for investors and analysts at Apple\u2019s earnings call this week. What Apple says could actually shake up other industries\u2019 stocks more than Apple\u2019s own or its suppliers\u2019.<\/p>\n

6. Apple\u2019s current plan for 2H26 new iPhone 18 models is to avoid raising prices as much as possible \u2014 at least keep the starting price flat, which is helpful for marketing.<\/p>\n

7. Apple has realized that it\u2019s not just memory and T-glass \u2014 other components could also run short as the AI server boom continues to…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple likely to keep starting price for iPhone 18 flat – Ming-Chi Kuo https:\/\/macdailynews.com\/2026\/01\/27\/apple-likely-to-keep-starting-price-for-iphone-18-flat-ming-chi-kuo\/ Publish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/macdailynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/251027_iphone_17.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[80,81],"class_list":["post-207179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone","tag-iphone-17","tag-iphone-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207181,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207179\/revisions\/207181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}