Club Benefits
The release of iPhone 18 marks a big change in the way Apple operates, with rumors suggesting that the phone won't make the September launch event as usual. Instead, it's said to be arriving early next year, alongside the lower-priced iPhone 18e. Sadly, the line between iPhone 18 and 18e may be a little more blurred than usual, and not just because of that tandem release.
According to the leaker Fixed Focus Digital on Weibo, Apple is actively looking for ways to control the cost of iPhone 18 production. In other words, we could see various downgrades as Apple attempts to ride the storm of RAMageddon and keep the entry-level iPhone at the same $799 price tag as its predecessors.
Article continues belowiPhone 18: The current situation
Obviously, the phone and computing industries are in a very precarious position right now. Component and manufacturing costs have been rising over the last few years, but the surge in AI development and data center construction has seen a severe shortage of crucial hardware. RAM is the main one, which is where the term "RAMageddon" came from, but there's also a shortage of storage chips.
Overall, the cost of building a new smartphone is significantly higher than it was a year ago. Apple has long had a reputation for weathering these kinds of shortages quite well, which was notable during the semiconductor shortage that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and led to severe shortages of game consoles, graphics cards and other electronics.
But this time, even Apple is feeling the effects of the crisis. The company reportedly agreed to a 100% price hike on Samsung's LPDDR5X memory without attempting to haggle.
A lot of manufacturers have already started quietly raising prices of their devices without explanation, including Samsung and Motorola. It doesn't take a genius to see that rising manufacturing costs are at least partially to blame, as are other external factors, such as tariffs.
There's little stopping Apple from raising the price of iPhone 18 as well, but there are a lot of reasons why that doesn't seem very likely. The first is that Apple recently made waves by releasing the MacBook Neo, a low-cost laptop that puts all other similarly-priced alternatives to shame.
It would be a poor look if Apple released the Neo and then increased the price of the base model iPhone 18 — even if circumstances are mostly out of its control. It would also be problematic for incoming CEO John Ternus, and the last thing he wants his first iPhone launch to be remembered for is a controversial price hike.
How could Apple make those cuts on iPhone 18?
Cutting costs during the manufacturing process will ensure Apple can keep the $799 starting price without eating into its profit margins too much. Though how much of an impact those cuts will have on the phone's performance isn't clear at the moment, and we probably won't get any additional insight until the phone is actually released — which may not be until next February.
But there are still some obvious ways Apple could help keep costs low without necessarily causing a virtual riot among its user base. The first is to reduce the performance power of the standard A20 chip, because how many people actually push their phone to its performance limit? Those that do would likely just buy an iPhone 18 Pro, with the more powerful A20 Pro chipset, anyway.
Just as long as Apple doesn't just reuse the same A19 chip that was in the iPhone 17, because we saw how well the iPhone 14 was received when it stuck with the A15 Bionic.
Likewise, Apple could use less powerful RAM than it would have otherwise chosen, or potentially even reduce the amount of RAM altogether. That said, considering the strict 8GB minimum memory requirement for Apple Intelligence, I don't think that's likely. The same goes for lowering the base storage, since Apple made a very big deal about how it was offering 256GB as standard on iPhone 17 without raising the price.
We can certainly expect Apple to limit the number of upgrades to the iPhone 18. So don't expect a whole lot of extra camera or display hardware coming on the next entry-level model. New features can be very expensive to implement, and cutting potential upgrades would be an easy saving for Apple.
Of course, there's a limit to how much Apple can cut before the iPhone 18 starts to look too much like an iPhone 17 or even an iPhone 18e. There has to be a reason for people to upgrade to the latest iPhone, and if it just seems like the previous model with a fresh coast of paint, then they're far less likely to pick one up.
And remember that Apple routinely keeps the previous generation iPhone around for at least a year. If the iPhone 17 gets the usual $100 price cut, the iPhone 18 could be a tough sell.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow us on TikTok.
More from Tom’s Guide
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
