The iPhone 16 series dropped last year with the same US prices as the iPhone 15 series. But the iPhone 17 might come with the first price increase in years. James Martin/CNET
Apple's annual iPhone event is likely just a few weeks away but we're still seeing new rumors surface. One of the latest leaks is that the iPhone 17 Pro will get a $50 price increase. The rumor surfaced on the Chinese social media site Weibo from a user named Instant Digital (Setsuna Digital) and corroborates an earlier prediction from Jefferies analyst Edison Lee.
Lee expects that to change this fall. He says that the iPhone 17 Air (17 Slim), 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max will get a $50 price increase to offset the higher costs of components and tariffs, as reported by Business Insider. He didn't mention the regular iPhone 17 getting a price hike. If true, that would mean that the starting prices for the iPhone 17 series will be:
iPhone 17 - $829
iPhone 17 Air - $979
iPhone 17 Pro - $1,049
iPhone 17 Pro Max - $1,249
Instant Digital also thinks that the baseline iPhone 17 Pro will come with 256GB of storage instead of 128GB like the iPhone 16 Pro.
Since what President Donald Trump touted as "Liberation Day," the possible effect of tariffs on the iPhone's price has been widely discussed. And yet, despite tariffs and politics, iPhone prices have remained the same so far this year. News on the price hikes follows a May report by The Wall Street Journal that Apple is considering a price increase and could attribute the rise to new and updated features instead of tariffs. But the launch of the rumored iPhone 17 this fall will likely come with a higher price, no matter what Trump says or does.
Apple is the third-largest company in the US, and most of its products are manufactured in China. Clearly, the iPhone's ubiquity has made it a symbol for the ongoing uncertainty of the US economy and politics. But even without higher component costs or tariffs, the iPhone has been overdue for a price increase. The last price increase was five years ago.
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