A single component category is quietly reshaping the price of Apple’s next flagship phone. A new report from TrendForce, one of the most closely followed market intelligence firms in the semiconductor industry, reveals that memory, covering both RAM and storage, will account for 34 percent of the entire cost of building an iPhone 18 Pro. That figure is expected to balloon to 42 percent by the first half of 2027.
One year ago, the same components accounted for just 10 percent of the iPhone 17 Pro’s build cost. That shift, from 10 percent to 34 percent in a single year, is what is driving the price increases iPhone buyers are about to face.
The iPhone 18 Pro’s bill of materials is expected to rise by up to 38 percent compared to its predecessor. This is for the 256GB storage version. As TrendForce puts it, higher retail prices for the iPhone 18 Pro are “unavoidable” at this point. Previous estimates suggest the baseline 256GB iPhone 18 Pro will cost as much as $1,399.
To put that in context, the iPhone 17 Pro launched at $999 for the base model. If the $1,399 estimate holds, that is a $400 jump in a single generation, the biggest price leap in iPhone history.
Apple is reportedly paying three times more for RAM and storage than it did with the iPhone 17 Pro. This is not a gradual cost creep. It is a structural shift in what memory components cost globally, driven by the same crisis that has already pushed up the prices of MacBooks, iPads, and Google’s Pixel 11 series.
The root cause is the AI boom. Data centres and AI companies have been aggressively securing long-term supplies of memory chips to train and run large AI models. That has left consumer electronics manufacturers competing for a shrinking pool of available supply, with prices rising sharply as a result.
TrendForce previously reported that prices for Dynamic Random Access Memory jumped by as much as 98 percent in the first quarter of 2026, with further increases expected. The iPhone 18 Pro’s build cost is a direct downstream consequence of that trend.
Beyond price, availability may be another concern for buyers hoping to get their hands on an iPhone 18 Pro at launch.
A separate GSMArena report noted that a shortage of DRAM could limit iPhone 18 Pro availability at launch, with Apple potentially unable to secure enough high-bandwidth memory chips to meet initial demand. If that plays out, pre-orders could be significantly delayed or constrained, which is unusual for a flagship iPhone launch.
The one positive outlook is that TrendForce believes Apple will absorb part of the higher costs by reducing its profit margins.
Apple has historically maintained some of the highest profit margins in the consumer electronics industry. If the company chooses to take a smaller cut per unit rather than passing the entire cost increase to buyers, the retail price increase could be smaller than the build cost increase suggests.
Whether Apple actually does this or simply passes the full increase to customers will become clear when the iPhone 18 series is officially announced, expected later in September 2026.
iPhones are not officially sold through Apple stores in Nigeria, but they remain among the most desired smartphones in the country, with strong grey market demand driving imports through resellers in Computer Village and online platforms.
Any price increase in dollar terms hits Nigerian buyers particularly hard. Exchange rate pressures, import duties, shipping costs, and reseller margins all sit on top of the base dollar price. If the iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,399 in the US, Nigerian buyers importing through unofficial channels could be looking at a naira price that significantly exceeds what many paid for the iPhone 17 Pro just a year ago.
For Nigerians currently using an older iPhone and planning an upgrade, this trajectory makes a strong case for acting sooner rather than waiting for the 18 series, unless you are specifically holding out for new features that justify the premium.
The iPhone 18 Pro story is not an isolated event. It is the latest chapter in a broader shift where the global AI infrastructure buildout is making everyday consumer technology more expensive. MacBook prices went up. iPad prices went up. Google’s Pixel 11 series prices are going up. And now the world’s best-selling premium smartphone is about to follow the same path.
For Nigerian consumers and global buyers alike, the era of flagship smartphone prices staying flat or dropping year over year appears to be over for now. The memory crisis is real, it is structural, and it is only beginning to show up in the products that sit in everyone’s pockets.
