iPhone 18 series pricing could be higher owing to one key component
Apple is reportedly planning on some interesting changes with the iPhone launch cycle starting with the iPhone 18 series. Not all three models are expected to launch together next year and the base iPhone 18 could be pushed to 2027. But what’s more unfortunate is the pricing, which could be notably higher than the iPhone 17 series, owing to the new A20 SoC.
According to a report by China Times (machine translated from Chinese), the pricing for the 2nm A20 chip that will power the iPhone 18 series will be higher than its predecessor. TSMC has apparently informed Apple and other customers that the price will be 50% higher, if not more, for the 2nm chips. The A19 processors that powers the iPhone 17 series were developed using TSMC’s 3nm N3P process. With the 2nm era, major performance gains could bring along major price increases across the board.
Last year, DigiTimes noted that the bill of materials (BOM) for the iPhone 16 (256 GB) was $416 with the A18 chip costing $45. The phone was launched at a retail price of $799 including Apple’s profit margin. The A19 chip is a bit more expensive since it uses the latest N3P process (still 3nm) and the China Times report states this process brought a 16% to 24% price increase. The iPhone 17 (256 GB), however, maintained the $799 price tag with Apple presumably absorbing the relatively minor hit to profit margin.
Now if the price of the A20 chip is to increase by let’s say 50%, as per the report, Apple would have to pass the extra cost to the customer to avoid taking a more significant hit to its profit margin, or come up with efficiencies elsewhere. This means pricing for the iPhone 18 series could go up compared to the iPhone 17 series. It should be noted that this is all speculation at this point and it could very well be that Apple finds a way to compensate for the increased chip manufacturing price.
As for the release timeline, it was recently reported that Apple plans on staggering the iPhone 18 series launch. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models are expected to arrive in the second half of 2026 while the base iPhone 18 is said to launch in the first half of 2027, alongside the iPhone 18e.
As mentioned earlier, TSMC has reportedly notified all its customers to expect higher pricing for the chips manufactured using the 2nm process so the price increase may not be limited to Apple’s devices, but next generation Snapdragon and MediaTek powered devices as well.
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