Apple to raise iPhone prices this year: report

With or without the trade war, it looks like Apple plans to use the new phones and features it announces later this year to raise prices.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal says that Apple is contemplating price hikes for the fall 2025 iPhone lineup but doesn’t want the increase associated with U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. This is likely to avoid blowback similar to what Amazon faced earlier this year over rumours it would show how much tariffs added to the cost of products.

Apple reportedly already imported as much stock as possible before tariffs. Recently, Tim Cook also said that most of the iPhones shipped to the U.S. this April-June would come from India. However, the iPhone Pro and Pro Max models will still be mostly made in China. The report mentions that around half of the U.S. iPhone sales are Pro models. That said, other reports indicate Apple plans to ramp up production in India to eventually cover U.S. iPhone demand.

This all leaves Apple stuck between a rock and a few hard places. The company will want to raise prices, but will need to blame it on new features, tariffs, or potentially take a financial hit and not raise prices at all.

The report doesn’t speculate about what Apple might add to the phones, but it’s expecting the new slim design and some other features this fall.

This is bad news for Canadians because if the core U.S. iPhone price goes up and isn’t blamed on tariffs, that suggests that the prices will also rise across the world to match the U.S. price. While this move is a little unexpected, the high cost of the recent iPhone 16e is in line with Apple shifting its pricing hierarchy up.

We’ve also heard reports that Apple might be planning to split up its iPhone release schedule in 2026, with the Pro and Air models coming out in the fall. Then, the base models and the ‘e’ handset will come out the following spring.

Source: The Wall Street Journal