The latest market survey report pointed out that the cost of the iPhone 18 Pro series has increased by nearly 40%. (Photo/Reuters)
Apple’s new generation iPhone 18 Pro series is expected to debut in September. How much the new phone will increase in price has become the focus of Apple fans. Now the latest report reveals Apple’s cost pressure.
Regarding the price of the iPhone 18 Pro series, it was previously rumored that the increase may fall to US$200 to US$300 (approximately NT$6,000 to NT$9,000), which once caused many people to call “the increase too fierce.” Although the actual selling price has not yet been announced, the latest analysis from market research agency TrendForce shows that the cost pressure faced by Apple is indeed considerable.
iPhone 18 Pro material costs increased by 38%
According to analysis by market research agency TrendForce, taking the iPhone 18 Pro 256GB as an example, the BOM (Bill of Materials) is expected to increase significantly by 38% compared to the previous generation. However, TrendForce believes that Apple may not pass on all the increased costs to consumers, but choose to sacrifice part of its profits and lower gross profit margins to prevent the price from rising too high and hitting market demand.
Memory is the biggest source of pressure for this surge in costs. It is reported that Apple’s memory purchase cost this year is about three times that of last year. Last year, memory accounted for only about 10% of the component cost of an iPhone. As prices continue to rise, it is expected that by next year, the proportion may even exceed 40%.
Apple CEO Cook also pointed out in a recent financial report meeting that the current price of memory is like a “hundred-year flood”, and prices are rising explosively.
Ming-Chi Kuo refutes TSMC’s $1 billion chip hoard
The impact of the memory shortage goes beyond price increases. Recently, it was revealed that because Apple cannot obtain enough memory, TSMC is stockpiling Apple’s 2nm processors worth about US$1 billion that have not yet been packaged. They can only continue packaging after the memory arrives.
However, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo disagrees with this statement. He said that Apple will plan TSMC’s processor production at least three months in advance based on the expected memory supply, so it is unlikely that TSMC will first produce a large amount of wafers and then get stuck due to insufficient memory.
Ming-Chi Kuo emphasized that the tight supply of memory does exist, and Apple has indeed lowered its hardware product shipment plan this year because of this, but TSMC has not accumulated a large amount of inventory because of this.
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