The iPhone 17 is almost a full year away from launch, but early rumors have already been flying. And the latest one claims that Apple may increase the price of its iPhones for the first time in eight years with the iPhone 17 series.
Jukanlosreve on X cites Jong Wook Lee, senior research at Samsung Securities Research Center, who claimed in a recent lecture that we should prepare for a price increase for the new iPhone 17 models. Interestingly, the reason the iPhone 17 may see a price hike is because the iPhone 16 series did not.
At a guest lecture, Jong Wook Lee, a senior researcher at Samsung Securities Research Center, stated, “Although there were initial expectations that Apple’s iPhone prices would rise this year, prices were unusually not increased. As a result, profit margins have declined since…December 14, 2024
Lee claims that we could have got higher prices for the iPhone 16, though as we saw, the iPhone 16 stayed the same as the iPhone 15 series before it. Therefore it is the unfortunate fate of the iPhone 17 to introduce new and higher pricing.
Lee doesn't tell us how much more expensive the iPhone 17 will be compared to current iPhones. If we had to make an educated guess though, we'd assume at least a raise of $100 for all models, so Apple can enjoy increased revenue without taking its phones' prices much higher than that of its rivals from Samsung, Google and others.
Breaking an eight-year streak
iPhones have stayed the same price since the iPhone X debuted in 2017, excluding the years when a new model like the iPhone 12 mini or iPhone 14 Plus appeared, or in the case of the price/base storage increase we got with the iPhone 15 Pro Max last year. Apple has done well to keep things steady for this long, and while users will never welcome a price increase with open arms, a change coming only after eight years of identically-priced models seems pretty good going.
In a further mix-up to the iPhone status quo, the iPhone 17 series could feature the new iPhone 17 Slim/Air model the rumormongers claim we'll be getting, either as a new standalone type of iPhone or as a replacement for the iPhone 16 Plus. Alleged pricing for this model could be anything from the same $900-1000 as the Plus to over $1,299, making it more expensive than a Pro Max model.
We'll only find out for certain what the iPhone 17 series costs when it launches, presumably in September 2025 going by typical Apple schedules and rumors that production is edging closer to commencing. Other rumors we could see confirmed on launch day include a new camera block design, Apple's first in-house Bluetooth and WiFi chip, more efficient battery tech, and camera upgrades for the Pro Max model.
