TrendForce: iPhone 18 Pro memory bill nearly 400% higher YoY

Apple's memory bill for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro will run "nearly 400% higher than a year earlier" in the third quarter, according to a TrendForce forecast reported by 9to5Mac. The research firm expects Apple to lift the Pro's retail price by around $100 over the iPhone 17 Pro rather than swallow the full increase. The jump reflects a wider memory boom; South Korea's August chip exports tripled to a record $46.65B.

TrendForce argues the memory line item is too large to hide inside the rest of the bill of materials. "Despite Apple's efforts to negotiate lower prices for other components, these savings are unlikely to offset the resulting pressure on overall BOM costs," the firm wrote, adding that "an increase in retail prices appears increasingly unavoidable while hardware costs remain elevated."

The same forecast puts Apple's first foldable, the iPhone Ultra, starting at up to $2,299, with the top configuration exceeding $3,000.

Even with that headroom on the Ultra, TrendForce sees Apple leaning harder on Services revenue to absorb the memory pressure, wary that "substantial price increases lead to even the biggest Apple fans upgrading their products less frequently."