iPhone 17: Apple is reportedly significantly dampening sales expectations – a harbinger of an impending price increase? | News

Every year, when Apple introduces the latest iPhone generation, the company says goodbye to the respective Pro and Pro Max models. The standard device without an addition after the model number usually remains in the range for another year as a cheaper option. You can currently buy the iPhone 16 for 100 euros cheaper than the iPhone 17. Buyers save money, manufacturers can continue to use established manufacturing processes, and Apple can convince price-conscious customers – optimal for everyone involved. This year, the mechanism will have a significantly smaller effect, as Apple has significantly revised down its demand forecasts for the iPhone 17, Weibo account Fixed Focus Digital claimed today. The reason: rising costs for essential components.

Some Chinese iPhone 17 production lines initially prepared to reduce their capacity by 15 percent. Now they will instead cut back by a full third at Apple’s behest. Apple has conducted a “very serious” internal assessment of the impact that higher hardware costs are having on demand.

AI companies are buying short the market
Rising component costs are putting a strain on the electronics industry worldwide. The prices for RAM, SSDs and hard drives have been rising for months and have now reached double to four times what they were 12 months ago. AI companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google and Microsoft have entered into an unexpected race to expand server capacities and are competing for prefabricated standard components as well as for manufacturing capacity at the few highly specialized semiconductor production facilities.

iPhone price increase postponed so far
On June 18, Tim Cook announced that they would be forced to increase prices. A week later, there was a massive price increase for almost all electronic products – even years-old Apple TVs and HomePods became significantly more expensive. The only areas that the group has so far left out are smartphones and smartwatches. It is likely that Apple will increase prices here when new models are introduced in September at the latest.

Overview: Price changes in the Apple Store

product	Price until June 24th	Price from June 25th.	the change
MacBook Neo	from €699	from €799	+ 14.3%
MacBook Air	from €1,199	from €1,399	+16.7%
MacBook Pro	from €1,799	from €2,199	+ 22.2%
Mac mini	from €699*	from €949	+ 35.8%
Mac Studio	from €2,199	from €2,999	+ 36.4%
Mac Studio M3 Ultra	from €4,999	from €6,299	+ 26%
iPad 11th Gen.	from €379	from 499 €	+ 31.7%
iPad mini 7th Gen.	from €549	from €679	+ 23.7%
iPad Air M4	from €649	from €799	+ 23.1%
iPad Pro	from 1099 €	from 1299 €	+ 18.2%
Apple TV	from 165 €	from €229	+ 28.8%
HomePod	from 449 €	from 499 €	+ 11.1%
HomePod mini	from 109 €	from 139 €	+ 27.5%
VisionPro	from €3699	from €3999	+ 8.11%

* Model has since been removed from the range (May 6th – May 26th).