While the attention this week was undoubtedly on the iPhone fold in the iPhone Duo, as well as the improved tech inside the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, Apple did spend time making a price change to other models in its range, and the result isn’t amazing.
Some models just cost more, even though nothing has changed.
Much like how Apple increased the cost of Macs and iPads earlier this year, so too is it increasing the price of iPhones, likely because hardware costs are increasing in the age of AI.
If you’ve not seen the warnings in laptop and storage pricing, the boom in data centres has meant less memory and storage to go around, decreasing supply of consumer hardware and putting pressure on prices.
Every company has responded in some way, and the response is higher prices and more costs.
Apple is no different. Now even its least expensive model feels the pain, even though nothing has actually changed.
From this week onwards, the 256 GB iPhone 17e jumps in price by $150, making its starting price $1149 compared to the $999 it launched with.
Unfortunately, it’s not alone.
The iPhone 17 standard was a cracker of a deal at $1349 last year. This year, the supply chain costs have pushed it $200 higher to $1549. Oof.
You’ll need to wait for a price fall
The price jump isn’t unexpected, but at the same time also is, and that’s thanks in part to there being no standard model iPhone 18 this year.
That will likely come sometime next year, and may see the current spot of hardware drop in price, potentially because the iPhone 17 will take the spot of the iPhone 16, now sitting at the bottom of the standard minimum-two-camera bunch and also more expensive.
What used to be an $1199 phone is now a $1349 phone, the same price where the iPhone 17 launched at.
Given this change, when the iPhone 18 does launch, you can probably expect the 17 to return to its regular price point, even if it’s likely to be less compelling than the 18.
