Apple iPhones could be heading toward noticeable price increases, and the culprit is an intensifying global DRAM and NAND memory crunch. New estimates suggest that memory components—once a relatively small slice of an iPhone’s manufacturing budget—may soon take up an unusually large share of what it costs to build Apple’s smartphones.
What’s driving the situation is surging demand for DRAM (the RAM used for fast, short-term processing) and NAND (flash storage used to hold apps, photos, and the operating system). As AI development accelerates, major AI-focused organizations and data center operators are buying up massive volumes of memory. With demand climbing faster than supply, memory prices have been rising quickly since last fall—and many analysts believe the peak may still be far off.
According to a report citing analyst data, DRAM and NAND could account for roughly 45% of iPhone production costs by 2027. If that projection holds, it would represent a dramatic shift from recent years, when memory was a much smaller line item in Apple’s per-device cost structure.
Recent bill-of-materials estimates help illustrate how big the change could be. In 2024, RAM and flash storage together reportedly made up about 7% of production costs for the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max. At the time, Apple was said to be paying around $17 for 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM and about $22 for 256GB of NAND flash storage—putting combined memory and storage costs at under $40 for those configurations.
For newer generations, those shares are already believed to be moving upward. Estimates suggest that for the iPhone 17 Pro, memory and storage could represent around 10% of total manufacturing costs. But the bigger concern is what happens if memory pricing continues to escalate sharply over the next few years.
If the most aggressive forecasts prove accurate, the memory-plus-storage cost in a single iPhone could surge from under $40 in 2024 to potentially more than $250. That kind of jump would put significant pressure on Apple’s pricing strategy—especially because suppliers are reportedly selling virtually all the memory they can produce. In other words, when the market is that tight, even the biggest buyers may have less leverage to negotiate lower prices.
The key question for consumers is what Apple does next. The company could pass higher component costs on to buyers through higher iPhone prices. Alternatively, Apple could absorb part of the hit by accepting lower profit margins in order to stay competitive and protect market share. Which path Apple chooses may become clearer around the next major iPhone launch cycle, when the company reveals its latest models and pricing.
For shoppers, the takeaway is simple: if the memory shortage persists and AI-driven demand keeps accelerating, future iPhone models—especially higher-end configurations with more RAM and storage—may become notably more expensive than today’s equivalents.
