Apple's pricing for the iPhone 17e and MacBook Neo strongly suggests that Apple plans to keep iPhone 18 Pro prices unchanged when the new models launch later this year, according to industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Sharing his latest thoughts on Apple's increasingly diversifying product roadmap, Kuo said on X that Apple's strategy is to use turmoil in the global memory chip market to its advantage, by securing supply, absorbing higher component costs, and gaining market share while competitors are forced to raise prices or cut specs.
Kuo first made the claim in January, when he said Apple's plan for the iPhone 18 Pro models was to "avoid raising prices as much as possible" despite having to pay more for components. The $599 MacBook Neo and $599 iPhone 17e, both of which launched today, appear to bear that out.
In a separate report last month, analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities corroborated Kuo's pricing outlook, saying his research of Apple's supply chain points to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max maintaining starting prices of $1,099 and $1,199, respectively.
DRAM and NAND prices have surged in recent months, driven by soaring demand from companies building AI server infrastructure. According to Kuo, Apple negotiates memory prices with suppliers on a quarterly basis rather than every six months, which gives it more flexibility but also more exposure to such price swings.
One possible sign of that risk management came last week when Apple removed the 512GB memory upgrade option when purchasing a Mac Studio, with the machine now maxing out at 256GB. The latter option also got a price rise – it used to cost $1,600 to go from 96GB to 256GB on the high-end M3 Ultra machine, but now it costs $2,000.
Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro models in September.
