Analyst expects higher iPhone 17 pricing and Apple will have a good excuse to do this
According to a tweet from @Jukanlosreve, the iPhone 17 line is going to cost buyers more money next year. The tweet mentions that Jong Wook Lee, a senior researcher at Samsung Securities Research Center, said that prices of the iPhone 16 line were supposed to rise this year but they did not. As a result, Jong expects prices of the iPhone 17 series to be hiked next September when the phones are unveiled and then put up for pre-orders.
"Although there were initial expectations that Apple’s iPhone prices would rise this year, prices were unusually not increased. As a result, profit margins have declined since the third quarter of this year. iPhone prices are expected to increase next year."-Jong Wook Lee, senior researcher at Samsung Securities Research Center
Pricing of the iPhone 17 line was going to be weird anyway since the ultra-slim iPhone 17 Air could be the highest-priced phone even though the early rumors say that it will be equipped with specs that are less capable than those on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. For example, the iPhone 17 Air is expected to be be powered by the A18 application processor (AP) compared to the slightly more advanced A18 Pro AP that will be used on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The new iPhone 17 Air is also expected to sport just one rear camera and rely on computational photography to replace the use of various cameras.
Since we don't know how Apple will price the iPhone 17 line, let's look at the iPhone 16 pricing:
- iPhone 16 starts at $799.
- iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899.
- iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999.
- iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199.
Previous rumors call for the iPhone 17 Air, which will take the place of what would have been the iPhone 17 Plus, to be priced at $1,299. That would be $100 more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max if there are no changes to iPhone 17 series pricing. In other words, with this scenario, Apple believes that consumers would pay more for the ultra-this design used for the new iPhone 17 Air.
Tweet says Samsung Securities analyst calls for Apple to raise the prices of the 2025 iPhone line. | Image credit-X
What might make more sense is that Apple will tack on $200 to the iPhone 17 Pro Max; at $1,399, the iPhone 17 Pro Max would regain its position as the most expensive iPhone model. To make this work, the iPhone 17 Pro Max would come with three storage options: 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB.
My guess is that we could see something like this for next year's iPhone 17 series:
- iPhone 17-$899.
- iPhone 17 Air-$1,299
- iPhone 17 Pro-$1,199
- iPhone 17 Pro Max-$1,399 (starts with 500GB storage).
Of course, this could be completely wrong. The wild card here is the possible 10% hike on tariffs placed on shipments from China that President-elect Trump said last month he would impose via executive order on day one of his second term. Since these tariffs are nothing more than an import tax, Apple would have to pay more to ship iPhone units to the U.S. from China.
Apple could decide to eat the additional cost or pass it on to consumers. If there is to be a price increase on the iPhone 17 line next year, Apple could blame it on a tariff increase if indeed one is announced by President Trump after he takes office next month.
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