If you’re planning to buy an iPhone in 2027, get ready to pay more for it. Apple has reportedly agreed to a pricier memory deal with Samsung. That deal all but guarantees another round of iPhone price hikes next year.
Why should you care? Apple already raised iPhone prices by $100 across its lineup earlier this month. This new deal suggests that wasn’t a one-time bump. It looks like the start of a pattern, one that will keep hitting your wallet every time you’re due for an upgrade.
According to a DigiTimes report, Apple has agreed to pay Samsung close to $2 per gigabyte for the RAM chips that power an iPhone’s memory. It’s also paying $0.33 per gigabyte for the flash storage that holds your photos and apps. That’s roughly a 22% jump from what Apple was paying just months ago. The new pricing kicks in starting in the first quarter of 2027.
So what does this price hike look like Apple’s costs? Well, an entry-level iPhone with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage would cost Apple more than $100 combined just for that memory. That’s before it even pays for the screen, chip, camera, and everything else that goes into building the phone.
This is already the second time this year Apple has passed rising memory costs on to customers. Back in June, it raised prices on Macs and iPads by at least $100. One high-end configuration jumped by $1,300. Then, with this month’s launch of the iPhone 18 Pro and the foldable iPhone Duo, Apple quietly raised prices on the iPhone 16, 17, 17e, and Air too, by $100 each. None of those phones got any updates. The Duo itself starts at $1,999 and climbs to $3,199 for the top storage option.
Why memory keeps getting more expensive
The root cause isn’t really Apple. It’s the AI boom. Companies building massive AI data centers are buying up huge amounts of memory chips. That’s leaving less supply for phones and laptops. AppleInsider reports that demand for these chips is expected to keep outpacing supply well into 2028. So the squeeze isn’t likely to ease up soon.
It’s not yet clear whether the next hike lands on the iPhone 18 and 18e when they arrive in spring 2027. Apple could also wait until the iPhone 20 series later in the year. If you’ve been holding onto an older iPhone, it’s worth watching Apple’s spring announcement. Waiting longer isn’t likely to make things any cheaper.