It’s the year of smartphone price hikes

Paying more for a new phone seems almost unavoidable after Apple’s event today. The new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max start at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively — a $100 price hike over their predecessors. You can’t dodge the price hike by opting for an older iPhone, either, because Apple raised prices on those by $100, too. And it’s not just Apple. This year, the $100 price hike has been a trend across the industry.

Google and Samsung followed the same formula as Apple when they each launched new phones over the past few months. The Pixel 11 starts at $899, up from $799 for last year’s Pixel 10. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launched at $2,099, $100 more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 it replaced.

You could try looking for a phone from a brand outside the big three, but the price hikes persist there, too. Sony’s new Xperia 10 VIII costs £150 more, and this year’s Moto Razr phones also cost $100 more than their predecessors, each offering little to no significant upgrades to go with their higher prices. Smartphone sales data shows that the market for phones under $100 may be on its way to completely disappearing.

The price hikes stem from ongoing component shortages, driven by AI data center buildouts, that could last years and aren’t showing any signs of letting up. RAM price hikes have been among the most severe. Nothing CEO Carl Pei said earlier this year that memory costs for the Nothing Phone 4A had doubled by the time it launched. Nearly every component that goes into new phones, and other tech, is also getting pricier. Qualcomm, which makes the processors that power many new phones, raised prices on its chips earlier this month.

Apple was fashionably late to raise its phone prices, like it was late to launch a foldable, potentially signaling that both trends are here to stay.