Will the iPhone 18 Pro Max be Apple's most expensive iPhone yet? Here’s what to expect

Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro series is launching in nearly 2 months, and rumours surrounding the price hike have already started to circulate. In June, Apple increased prices of its existing devices across iPads, MacBooks, and Macs, creating much anticipation over an iPhone price hike. 

Now, as the launch is nearing, experts and media reports suggest that iPhone 18 Pro Max could get a $300 (about  Rs 28,599) price hike, compared to iPhone 17 Pro Max.

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iPhone 18 Pro Max price hike

According to Counterpoint Research, Apple's estimated bill of materials (BOM) for the 1TB storage variant of iPhone 18 Pro Max is close to $900, which is roughly $350 higher than the estimated $550 BOM of the 1TB iPhone 17 Pro Max. This price hike is suspected due to rising memory chip prices, which are likely to push up its manufacturing cost.

The biggest contributor to the price hike is NAND flash storage and DRAM chips, that helps stores and run your apps, photos, videos, and files even when the phone is switched off. The report highlighted that NAND storage alone is now estimated to cost more than $250. This price hike is projected due to the growing demand for AI infrastructure and hardware.

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On the other hand, the integration of the upcoming A20 Pro chip could also add to the price when it comes to smartphone production. The new chip is said to be fabricated with Apple’s first 2-nanometre process, which adds a significant wafer cost over the current N3P process used for the A19 Pro.

However, it is said that Apple may not pass the entire price hike to customers. It is anticipated that Apple could use a tiered pricing strategy, where lower-storage models (such as 256GB or 512GB) may see a smaller price increase, compared to higher-storage variants, as they use more expensive memory components.