It's hard to feel sorry for Apple these days even if its margins are in a vise-like squeeze, courtesy of the relentless increase in the price of memory chips. After all, over the past decade, Apple inflated the price of its flagship iPhone model by 60 percent, when the average CPI basket grew by just 37 percent.
Memory makers are only giving Apple a taste of its own medicine
Apple used to secure memory chips via 1-year or even longer contracts, winning hefty discounts relative to the prevailing market price of the time. Now, however, Apple negotiates memory prices quarterly, with its focus shifting away from bargains to securing enough supply for its ever-expanding product portfolio.
Concurrently, after undergoing a 3x increase since Q1 2025, LPDDR5X 12GB contract prices were hovering at around $120 towards the tail-end of Q1 and into Q2 2026, and have increased by $68.8 since the start of the year to hit $145 per unit recently.
This relentless rise in DRAM prices is now squeezing Apple's margins, and giving rise to projections that Apple might hike the price of its upcoming iPhone 18 Pro to $1,399 vs. the 1,099 base price of the iPhone 17 Pro. Accordingly, the iPhone 18 Pro Max might start at $1,499, constituting a $300 price increase relative to the $1,199 base price of the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Even so, it is hard to feel any sympathy for Apple, especially as it has hiked the price of its highest-end iPhone by 60 percent over the past decade. As an illustration, Apple debuted the iPhone 7 Plus (the flagship variant at the time) at $749 in 2016. Last September, the iPhone 17 Pro Max started retailing for $1,199.
What's particularly egregious, however, is the fact that the CPI basket in the US has grown from 240 in 2016 to 328.82 in 2026, constituting an increase of just 37 percent.
Worst still, Apple's already-fat margins are apparently hefty enough to hover at 45 percent in 2027 even after implementing a much more modest price hike of $50-$100, as is JP Morgan's base case at the moment, with the $2,000 iPhone Ultra playing a major role in dragging Apple's ASP to $1,084 next year from $987 this year.
So, the next time someone says "poor Apple," just show them these facts. Perhaps, it's high time that Apple leverages some of its windfall accrued over the past decade to give its loyal customers a much-needed reprieve. But then again, this is the uber-mercantile Apple we are talking about, and one should not never put much stock in its generosity.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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