After hiking MacBook and iPad prices earlier this year, a new leak has suggested that the Cupertino-based tech giant is looking to raise the prices of iPhones starting from next week.
As per tipster Fixed Focus Digital on Weibo, Apple is planning to raise the prices of iPhones very soon. The tipster notes that this is still a rumour but added that the price hike could come into effect from 10th August onwards, i.e. Monday.
The tipster also notes that Apple has decided to decrease the production capacity for current models. The tipster did not give the names of the products but noted that Apple has reduced production lines from 30% to 15%.
What had Apple said on iPad price hike?
The MacBook and iPad price hike had occurred in June this year when Apple raised the prices of some products like the MacBook Pro M5 Max by up to ₹1 lakh, while others like the Apple TV 4K went from ₹14,900 to ₹25,900, marking a 74% increase.
Notably, Apple is not the only company to implement a price hike for its products. A number of companies have raised the prices of their current and older-generation products amid the memory chip crunch and a general rise in component prices.
In a statement to CNBC at the time, Apple said, “The consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge. The rapid expansion of AI data centres has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.”
Will iPhone 18 Pro series see a price bump?
While earlier reports had indicated that Apple was looking to absorb the component price hike in order to get a larger share of the market, new leaks suggest that might not necessarily be the case.
In fact, most analysts agree at this point that we could see a real price hike for the iPhone 18 Pro lineup that is likely to be launched next month.
As per a report by IDC, there could be up to a $200 price hike for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. The market intelligence company had earlier predicted around a $100 increase for the Pro variants and a $50 hike for the base variants, but that analysis has now been turned on its head after the recent hike made to the iPads and MacBooks by Apple, which in some cases even touched the $300 mark.
Notably, the iPhone 17 Pro launched at a starting price of $1,099 or ₹1,34,900 in India, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max began at $1,199 or ₹1,49,900 in India. However, if the new report is to be believed, the iPhone 18 Pro could be priced somewhere between $1,200-$1,300, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max could cost around $1,299-$1,399.
