Apple iPhone buyers are facing a 5% to 10% price increase after Tim Cook signaled that Apple plans to pass through surging memory chip costs. The move points to a rare case where Apple cannot fully absorb input inflation, so shoppers could see higher sticker prices even as the company keeps its hardware lineup unchanged.
Cook flags higher iPhone prices
Cook reached out to the to flag the pricing move, and Gene Munster said Apple will absorb part of the hit while shifting the rest to consumers. On a CNBC segment on June 18, 2026, Munster said, “The fact that Tim Cook has been pushed to move the pricing higher... is a signal that this is that big of an issue” and added that the move is “reinforcing the confidence in the market that these memory chips still have more room to run.”
Apple and Micron pricing pressure
Apple booked $56.994 billion in iPhone revenue last quarter and authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback, which shows how much cash it has to work with even as it still appears unable to swallow the full memory bill. That tension matters because a company as disciplined as Apple is usually the buyer that can squeeze suppliers, yet here it is signaling a pass-through to customers instead.
Micron’s June 24 report
Micron reports Q3 on June 24 after guiding $33.5 billion in revenue at roughly 81% gross margin. The company also said it is rationing supply to 50% to two-thirds of key customer demand in the medium term, while DRAM prices ran in the mid-sixties percentage range sequentially in fiscal Q2 and NAND prices rose in the high-seventies percentage range.
Memory chips still have room
Micron delivered $23.86 billion of revenue last quarter, up 196.29% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $12.20 versus an $8.73 estimate. Sanjay Mehrotra has described the business as having “memory has become a strategic asset in the AI era,” and the pricing backdrop explains why investors have treated Micron, Western Digital, and SK Hynix as the clearest beneficiaries of the surge.
The open question is which iPhone models will get the increase and when Apple will implement it. Buyers planning an upgrade now only know the range, not the product-by-product split, and that leaves room for Apple to adjust the burden across its lineup without changing the overall 5% to 10% target.
