With the Apple event now mere days away, the rumor mill is grinding harder than ever with new information about the upcoming iPhone 15 models — and we’ve just got some good news about the potential for an iPhone 15 Pro price hike. Namely, the only model that might become more expensive this year is the iPhone 15 Pro Max, rather than both Pro models.
Market research firm Trendforce reports that there should be “a stable pricing landscape for the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 15 Pro, largely mirroring last year’s figures”, with only the iPhone 15 Pro Max bucking the trend with a potential $100 price increase.
iPhone Price increases in 2023
There have been innumerable rumors about the iPhone 15 Pro’s pricing, with some even suggesting a $200 price increase over last year's models could be on the cards. There’s no great surprise that there would be a price increase — with the potential for a wicked 48MP periscope camera, a new Titanium frame, and a brand new 3nm A17 chip, there are going to be increased costs in the production of the new devices.
That this report tempers that is interesting, but there’s one reason we’re not getting too excited just yet. While Trendforce has a good historical track record of inside Apple insight (it correctly predicted iPhone SE 3, 120Hz on the iPhone, and more), it did miss on a couple of the specs on last year’s iPhones, namely the amount of storage that the Pro models would get, and the cameras that would be inside the device.
iPhone price increases — iMore’s take
Look, we can’t see a world where the newest iPhones don’t get some kind of price increase. Their internals are looking to be more impressive than ever, there are potential massive upgrades to key areas like the processor and the camera, and there’s likely going to be a new material used in the production of the most expensive iPhones. All of these things simply cost more to produce — and those costs are going to be passed along to us, as buyers, rather than swallowed by Apple.
Given that, while Trendforce has had a reasonable track record in the past, last year's missteps around some key iPhone specs make us wonder if this year there will be other inaccuracies in its predictions. Perhaps more potently, Trendforce is the only outlet so far to indicate the iPhone 15 Pro might not get a price increase. And given that almost every other Apple launch over the last few months has had some kind of price increase (particularly in the UK), it's more than likely that all Pro models of iPhone will get a price increase.
But we can hope, can’t we?
