Apple is considering iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max price increases

Shawn Knight

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The big picture: Global smartphone demand continues to slide but Apple seems undeterred. The tech titan's next-gen iPhone is less than two months away and it's apparently business as usual for Cupertino. Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Apple has asked suppliers to produce roughly 85 million iPhone 15 models through the end of the year. That is in the same ballpark as the number of iPhone 14 smartphones the company requested last year.

In an effort to combat ongoing inflation and waning consumer demand, Apple is reportedly considering increasing the price of its high end iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models. Ideally, the extra revenue could offset losses at the opposite end of the iPhone buying spectrum where shoppers are more sensitive to price hikes.

Last week, The Information claimed the Pro and Pro Max could face considerable shortages at launch due to a manufacturing issue with LG-supplied screens for the phones. One Bloomberg source, however, described the situation as a minor hiccup that should be ironed out within a week or two, and said the incident will not have a noticeable impact on overall production.

Apple is widely expected to introduce the iPhone 15 family in the first week or two of September. Earlier rumors have pointed to a number of new inbound features including stacked battery technology to boost energy density, a faster A17 Bionic SoC for the Pro and Pro Max, and enhanced Apple Vision Pro integration. The iPhone 15 Pro Max may also include a periscope camera system that would stretch the phone's optical zoom range out to around 5-6x. Pro models were also expected to ship with touch-enabled side buttons, but technical issues have reportedly kept that change at bay at least for another year.

Earlier this month, Counterpoint Research said the global smartphone market was well beyond its rapid growth phase. In fact, Q2 represented the eighth consecutive quarter with a year over year decline in shipments.

Image credit: Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona, Victor Carvalho

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Apple crowd not going like me, lol, 12 Pro is, will be my last. Can spend the extra premium on other things simply enjoy more while still feeling good about the phone (and os) using -- waiting on shipment of the pixel, back to android (which always liked my droid work phone) -- I guess it actually ended when didn't do the apple thing and jump when 13 came out, nor when 14 came out. Premium price to say its iphone, nearly always was, likely always will be, no surprise really.
 
I approve. But to be serious, observing Samsung's prices, I found that I hardly ever paid their ever increasing phone prices.
They go on sale so often that those ridiculous high prices do not mean much to a lot of people.
 
Phones are so good now I have no idea why people spend money on the flagship models. People say there's no point to getting an iPhone Plus when you can just spend $200 to get the best phone they offer, but it's not that much better.

The two significant benefits of a Pro are the new display and the camera. iPhone Plus's photos are high enough in quality that rarely the average user needs what the Pro offers, and most of the display improvements are also lost on the average person. 60 Hz is plenty fast enough, dynamic island is mostly just marketing and design, and I still don't know why an always-on display is beneficial (it's also a gimmick). The measurable improvements of CPU, battery, and display brightness do not warrant spending the extra money.

Personally I use the iPhone SE and think even the plain iPhone is overpriced, and I care most about longevity via software updates (which ends up making this the cheapest option for me). I don't need a fancy phone.
 
I expect that any increase in price will be offset by an increase in the number of monthly payments needed to pay off the phone.
 
Let me fix this for you and make it easier to write new stories about Apple:

"Apple is considering XXXXXX price increases" I don't see how that's a headline, they are always considering how much more money they can get for their products.
 
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