The latest market news points out that the hardware production costs of the iPhone 18 Pro Max, which is expected to be released this fall, will face a significant increase. According to supply chain analysis by market research firm Counterpoint Research, based on the 1TB capacity model, the bill of materials (BOM) cost of the iPhone 18 Pro Max may increase by nearly US$300 (equivalent to nearly HK$2,340) compared to the previous generation iPhone 17 Pro Max. This data reflects that the global semiconductor and memory markets are currently under tremendous price pressure.
The core reason for the soaring costs is mainly due to the supply shortage of memory chips. Due to the sharp surge in global artificial intelligence (AI) hardware demand, the production capacity of traditional memory has been severely squeezed, causing the prices of NAND flash memory and DRAM to continue to rise. According to sources, the cost of the 1TB version of NAND flash memory alone has exceeded US$250. This amount is almost half of the overall estimated component cost of the previous generation model, and has become the main factor driving up the production cost of the new machine.
In addition to memory, the technology upgrade of core processors is also another important source of cost. The iPhone 18 Pro series is expected to be equipped with the A20 Pro chip for the first time and be the first to adopt TSMC’s latest 2nm process technology. Compared with the N3P (3nm) process used in the previous generation A19 Pro, the new 2nm wafer is priced higher. In addition, the new technology will often increase the average production cost of a single chip during the initial ramp-up stage of mass production.
However, the price trend of some components has helped alleviate the overall price increase pressure. The report pointed out that the cost of the display screen and some other basic components of the new phone is expected to be lower than that of the previous generation. As for the camera, although it is rumored that variable aperture main lens technology will be introduced, resulting in a slight increase in the cost of the lens module, overall, the main cost increase is still concentrated on the core chip and high-speed memory.
Faced with narrowing profit margins, APPLE has a high chance of raising product prices. In fact, APPLE has recently raised the retail prices of as many as 14 products, including Mac, iPad and Vision Pro. The main reason is also the imbalance of supply and demand in the supply chain caused by the construction of AI data centers. The market generally expects that the iPhone 18 Pro series will be the subject of the next wave of price adjustments. Some forecasts indicate that the starting price may increase to US$1,399, and some institutions estimate that the Pro and Pro Max models will increase by approximately US$200. In order to control the market rebound, APPLE may adopt a tiered pricing strategy, focusing the main increases on high-capacity versions, in order to balance the overall profit performance.
