The sheer scale of the ongoing increase in DRAM and NAND costs is unprecedented by any definition of the word, as Apple's Tim Cook also recently highlighted by conceding that he had "never seen anything like this in over 40 years."
A simple statement, however, rarely conveys the full extent of a paradigm-altering upheaval, and to get some much-needed clarity, you should look no further than the upcoming Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max's Bill of Materials (BOM) breakdown, where the NAND and DRAM costs now make up nearly half of the total cost of each device.
Apple's Bill of Materials for the iPhone 18 Pro Max has increased by $300, but the device's retail price is expected to increase by $200, which should squeeze Apple's margins
We noted recently that memory and flash storage costs made up just around 9 percent of Apple's BOM for the 256GB iPhone 17 Pro back in 2025. However, these two components will make up a whopping 27 percent of the BOM for the upcoming 256GB variant of the iPhone 18 Pro, as per the estimates from TechInsights.
Well, Counterpoint has just published BOM estimates for the 1TB variant of the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro Max, painting an even more dire picture. Firstly, NAND costs now make up the biggest chunk of the BOM at over $250, which is enough to cover around half of the iPhone 17 Pro Max's total cost! Secondly, DRAM and NAND costs combined now make up around $400 of the BOM, which makes sense, especially as we noted recently that contract prices for a 12GB LPDDR5X chip were hovering at around $145 per unit.
According to Counterpoint, this unprecedented rise in memory costs will be partly offset by savings elsewhere, which includes the display panels. This means that Apple's total BOM for the 1TB iPhone 18 Pro Max will rise by around $300. However, as the retail price of the upcoming Pro Max will only rise by around $200, Apple's margins are headed for a modest squeeze. This also then reduces the chances for an LPDDR6 RAM within the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro duo, which is entirely in-line with our most recent reporting on this niche topic.
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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