iPhone 18 could avoid 2026’s big phone pitfall You Should Know
Update: Apple CEO Tim Cook just told The Wall Street Journal that “price increases are unavoidable” in future devices.
“We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” he told the publication.
Whether this means that the iPhone 18 is actually going to be more expensive after all (see our comments on the source of the original report below), or if Apple is going to take the hit on its flagship phone and boost prices on other models remains to be seen.
It’s also possible that Apple will freeze iPhone 18 prices in its crucial home US market while hiking them elsewhere.
Original report: Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 18 could avoid the biggest issue facing its 2026 smartphone rivals.
According to a fresh reports from Taiwan, the iPhone 18 could pack in a bumper (for iOS) 12GB of RAM rather than the 8GB of the iPhone 17.
That would empower Apple’s next mainstream model to run its more sophisticated Siri AI features. That’s not the part of this story that gets this confirmed AI cynic excited, however.
Far more interesting, I’d argue, is the suggestion that the iPhone 18 memory boost won’t come accompanied by a price hike. It’s claimed that Apple will absorb the hit to its margins brought about by the current memory shortage, and will charge a standard $799 for its new phone.
Whether this price freeze will translate to UK and European pricing (not to mention the rest of the world) remains to be seen.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Caveats and consequences
It should be noted that this report comes from DigiTimes, which hasn’t always been the most consistently reliable source of industry gossip.
With that caveat out of the way, we can start to speculate on what could be a major selling point for the iPhone 18.
Earlier in the year, Samsung hiked the price of its baseline Samsung Galaxy S26 – which will arguably be the primary competition for the iPhone 18 at launch – to $899.99 / £879.
That was a $100 increase, both beyond the price of the Samsung Galaxy S25 and the iPhone 17.
If this rumour proves accurate, then Apple could be in the unusual position of offering the best value flagship smartphone on the market come the end of 2026.
We truly do live in strange times.
