Apple plans to "use the market chaos to its advantage" and keep iPhone 18 affordable, claims expert

It's going to be a hard year for tech lovers – at least for our pockets. RAM shortages are going to make just about every new product more expensive, and ultimately the consumer will foot the bill.

Or at least, that's what you'd think. One renowned industry expert believes that Apple might decide to absorb extra costs in an effort to keep the iPhone 18 affordable. Let's hope others follow suit.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has shared his thoughts on the memory price hikes and how they might affect Apple's 2026 plans, and he writes that the company could "use the market chaos to its advantage". That's part of Apple's usual playbook, he claims.

It could secure the chips with its obvious financial might and absorb the costs when pricing the next wave of iPhones: "Apple’s current plan for 2H26 new iPhone 18 models is to avoid raising prices as much as possible – at least keep the starting price flat, which is helpful for marketing," Kuo revealed on X.

It will use its leverage to "lock in a deal" with suppliers for components supply, where other companies could struggle. Both memory and storage are affected by the shortages and subsequent price rises, so it pays to be one of the bigger manufacturers.

Not all new iPhones might stay at 2025 prices, but the entry levels could – such as the standard iPhone 18 with 256GB of storage. It could be that we see those with more storage and/or memory capacities take on some of the extra cost.

We guess we'll just have to wait to find out. This issue is certainly not just going to go away any time soon, so we expect to see a wider impact as the year rolls on.