Apple has added £100 to the price of every iPhone, including older models, as a global memory chip shortage nicknamed "RAMageddon" pushes up component costs. The increase, folded quietly into this month's foldable iPhone Duo launch, comes as AI datacentre demand drains the memory chip supply that phone and computer makers depend on.
Apple's iPhone launch made headlines for unveiling the company's first folding phone, but the event also carried a quieter change: a £100 increase across the entire iPhone lineup, including older models still on sale. The rise reverses a decades-long trend of electronics getting cheaper each year.
Memory shortage drives the increase
The price rise traces back to what the industry calls "RAMageddon." AI datacentre buildouts are hoovering up available memory chips, leaving phone and computer makers short of supply. As a result, some chips now cost five times what they did previously.
According to IDC vice-president Francisco Jeronimo: "Component costs have risen sharply, with memory alone up more than 300% year on year." Because older iPhones use the same expensive memory as current models, Apple prices them as current products rather than discounting them.
Apple is not alone. Samsung and Google have added up to £80 to their flagship phones. Apple has also lifted the price of its refurbished stock, including the older iPhone 15, by £60 to £70. Data from Uswitch shows the increase has yet to reach third-party refurbished iPhones, however.
Smartphone sales set to shrink
The higher prices arrive as the smartphone market contracts. IDC forecasts the steepest annual decline in worldwide smartphone sales on record this year, with unit sales falling almost 17% to just over one billion handsets. Jeronimo says people are buying fewer phones and paying more for the ones they do buy.
Apple itself has acknowledged the scale of the cost pressure, saying in a statement that it has never seen a component price increase this large, this quickly. Jeronimo expects memory prices to keep rising into 2027, even as the pace slows from the sharpest spikes seen earlier this year, and he does not expect smartphone prices to fall back to last year's levels once costs ease. Key memory producers, including SK Hynix, have suggested the shortages could last beyond 2030.
Source: Business | The Guardian
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