If you’re worried Apple is about to raise iPhone 18 prices, that’s likely unavoidable in some form. But the good news is that any increase may be more measured than the hikes Samsung has rolled out across several Galaxy flagships this year. Google’s decision to keep Pixel 10 pricing relatively aggressive offers a useful clue about how Apple might try to handle iPhone 18 pricing.
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Apple will reportedly try to keep iPhone 18 prices as stable as possible when the range launches this year, according to a research note seen by 9to5Mac. Analyst Jeff Pu says Apple could take an “aggressive pricing strategy” with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max base storage models.
The Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max's successor, the iPhone 18 Pro Max might not see a price increase. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
That could mean the starting prices stay at the same levels as the iPhone 17 Pro lineup. Instead, Apple may absorb some rising memory costs pressure by pushing price increases into higher storage tiers, which is similar to Samsung’s Galaxy S26 launch strategy. The Korean company kept the Galaxy S26 Ultra price steady, then made up the difference with price rises for the base model and Galaxy S26 Plus.
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But Samsung wasn’t done there. Weeks later, the price of the eight-month-old Galaxy Z Fold 7 climbed by $80, as did the Galaxy Z Flip 7 by $80. Hikes have also landed on the Galaxy S25 Edge by $80 and Galaxy S25 FE by $40.
Even the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra 1TB jumped by a huge $280. Combine that with more pedestrian discounts and it’s clear Samsung is squeezing where it can.
That makes sense for a company like Samsung, where hardware is still the core business. Apple and Google, however, have more room to maneuver.
If you solely watched Pixel 10 price fluctuations, you’d have no clue there was memory chip shortage chaos happening behind the scenes. Google has repeatedly slashed the price of the entire Pixel 10 series (it’s running another promotion now). The company seems to have dropped any pretence of regular pricing.
This is something the company can (for now) get away with because Pixel hardware isn’t the bread and butter of its business. Search and cloud are. Google treats hardware as a distribution channel for Gemini and the Google One AI Premium subscription. More Pixel 10 users means more subscribers, whereas Samsung has to maintain hardware margins as a key revenue driver.
Apple is in a similar position. Services revenue rose to $30.98 billion in Apple’s Q2 2026 results, up 16% year over year, and accounted for 27.9% of total quarterly revenue. iPhone still brought in the most money at $56.99 billion, but services remain enormously profitable, with margins that are far higher than hardware.
With caveats that Apple takes a much larger market share than Google in terms of global phone sales, the Pixel’s price blueprint gives us some insight into how Apple can keep iPhone 18 price rises at bay for a limited amount of time. It doesn’t make the company immune to cost pressures, but it does mean Apple has more options than a pure hardware player.
The real question isn’t whether Apple can avoid every price increase. It’s how long it can keep the pain out of the headline price and hide it somewhere less obvious, like storage upgrades or accessory bundles. That may work for a while, especially if Apple wants the positive headlines that come with unchanged prices for the iPhone 18.
But memory pricing isn’t getting easier anytime soon. IDC Analysts don’t expect relief until late 2027, and Gartner has warned of a 130% surge in DRAM and SSD costs by the end of 2026. So Apple may be able to delay an iPhone 18 price hike, but it probably can’t avoid it forever.
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