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Apple Raised the iPhone 18 Pro Price by $100. Now It's Reportedly Cutting Orders 15%.

Nikkei says Apple cut iPhone 18 Pro component orders at least 15% after a $100 price rise caused by AI-fuelled memory costs. Apple has not confirmed the report.

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Siavash Ghanbari
5 min read
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Apple has told some suppliers to cut October component orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max by at least 15% from what it originally asked for, Nikkei Asia reported on October 9, three weeks after the phones went on sale at $100 more than last year's models. One executive-level source told Nikkei that "in October alone, we are seeing orders from Apple reducing by 15% to 20% for both the premium models." Apple has not confirmed the report, and its shares fell about 2.7% in premarket trading on the news. The twist is where the $100 came from: the same AI data-center boom that is handing Samsung a record quarter is making Apple's flagship phone more expensive to build, and the first flagship launch under new CEO John Ternus appears to be paying for it.

What Nikkei Says Apple Cut, and What It Didn't

The report is specific about scope. The cuts apply to October component orders for the two Pro models, which start at $1,199 and $1,299, each $100 above the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Nikkei's sources said demand has been softer than expected from late August into October and that Apple turned more cautious on shipments from early September, before the phones even reached stores on September 18.

A supply chain manager quoted by Nikkei said demand is "not as strong as previous years when all the new models are introduced all together." That points at the other change this year: Apple's autumn lineup was Pro-only, plus the $1,999 foldable iPhone Duo that goes on sale October 23. The standard iPhone 18, an iPhone 18e and a second-generation iPhone Air are expected in spring 2027, according to Bloomberg reporting cited by Fortune. Some buyers who would normally pick a cheaper model in September may simply be waiting.

Two caveats matter. First, a component order is a forecast, not a sales number. The cuts hit some suppliers in October and not others, depending on lead times, and Nikkei's sources did not know whether Apple would adjust orders again from November. Second, Apple has said nothing. It did not respond to Fortune's request for comment, and Nikkei's reporting is anonymous. One of Nikkei's sources did expect "a similar fate for the iPhone Duo" after launch, but that is a prediction, not an order.

The $100 Came From the Memory Market

TrendForce estimates that the memory inside a 256GB iPhone 18 Pro costs nearly 400% more than it did a year ago, and that memory now makes up 34% of the phone's component cost, up from 10%. Apple raised Mac and iPad prices in June for the same reason, and on his final earnings call in July, then-CEO Tim Cook called memory pricing a "100-year flood." J.P. Morgan Global Research expects DRAM prices to rise more than 400% between the start of 2024 and the end of 2026.

The cause is upstream. Chipmakers are prioritising server DRAM and high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, where margins are higher, and phone makers are absorbing the price increases. Samsung's preliminary third-quarter numbers, published October 8, show both sides of that trade in one company: operating profit of 107.4 trillion won, about $80 billion, up 782.5% year on year, with analysts attributing roughly 110 trillion won of it to memory, while the division that makes Galaxy phones is expected to post its second consecutive quarterly loss. Samsung and SK Hynix are spending trillions of won on new memory fabs and HBM packaging, but that capacity is years away.

The result is a smartphone market shrinking in units while rising in price. IDC forecasts global shipments will fall 16.7% in 2026 to just over 1 billion units, the steepest annual decline on record, with the average selling price up 27.6% to $581. Apple is the least exposed major vendor in that forecast, with iOS shipments expected to slip 1.3% against a 24.3% drop for Android.

Why Analysts Were Already Nervous

The Nikkei story landed on soft ground. UBS analysts had been tracking iPhone 18 Pro delivery wait times across more than 30 markets and wrote that "declining wait times against a stable supply backdrop is an increasing concern in our view." Not every signal points the same way: Counterpoint reported that iPhone 18 Pro sales in China rose 12% year on year in their first three days.

There is also a seasonal pattern worth naming. Macworld's Michael Simon argues that overseas outlets run an iPhone production-cut story almost every autumn, that the stock usually recovers by earnings, and that this year's cut may partly reflect Apple shifting shared components toward the iPhone Duo, which uses the same processor, memory and storage options as the 18 Pro. He also concedes that the report "holds considerably more weight due to the current market conditions." Both things can be true: Apple reallocates every year, and this year the price elasticity is real.

Ternus Inherits Cook's Flood

The timing is awkward for John Ternus, who took over as CEO on September 1. In Apple's fiscal third quarter, which ended June 27, revenue rose 16% to $109.4 billion and iPhone revenue grew nearly 22%, but Cook warned on that call that tight memory supply would weigh on iPhone, Mac and iPad sales in the coming months. Apple's challenge now is that the shortage is cutting both ways: it raises the cost of every phone Apple builds, and the price increases it forces appear to be thinning demand at the top of the range. It is the second strategic headache Apple has picked up from the AI boom this year, after its ChatGPT partnership with OpenAI soured. Whether the order cut is a blip or a trend will be visible in two places over the next month: the iPhone Duo's first weeks on sale, and whatever Apple says about iPhone demand when it reports its fiscal fourth quarter.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Is Apple cutting iPhone 18 Pro production?

According to a Nikkei Asia report on October 9, 2026, Apple told some suppliers to cut October component orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max by at least 15% from its original requests, with one executive-level source putting the cut at 15% to 20%. Apple has not confirmed the report, and it covers component orders, not finished-phone sales.

How much does the iPhone 18 Pro cost?

The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at $1,299. Both are $100 more than the iPhone 17 Pro models they replaced. Apple unveiled them on September 9, 2026 and started sales on September 18.

Why did Apple raise iPhone prices in 2026?

Memory chips. AI data centers are absorbing a growing share of DRAM and NAND supply, and TrendForce estimates the memory inside a 256GB iPhone 18 Pro costs nearly 400% more than a year earlier, rising to 34% of the phone's component cost from 10%. Tim Cook called the memory price surge a "100-year flood" in July.

Did Apple stock fall on the iPhone 18 Pro order-cut report?

Apple shares fell about 2.7% in premarket trading on October 9, 2026 after the Nikkei report, having closed at $340.42 the day before. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

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