With the calendar about to change over to August, all eyes will soon be on Apple’s fall event, and with it, new iPhones. This year, we’re expecting the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max to arrive alongside the brand-new folding iPhone Ultra, and demand is sure to be bigger than ever.
But if you’re planning on buying one of these new products, you might not be able to. During Apple’s Q3 earnings call Thursday, Tim Cook warned that “the impact from the supply constraints (will) increase significantly” in the coming quarter. In plain English, that means supplies of new products could be severely limited.
Of course, that’s not a new thing for new iPhone launches, but it sounds like this year will be particularly bad. While Cook stressed that the current shortage is due to an “incredibly strong iPhone and Mac product cycle that has really yielded a demand beyond our expectation” and “isn’t a partner or supplier issue,” the fact of the matter is RAM is becoming very expensive and hard to get.
Cook explains that Apple sees “the market pricing for memory continuing to increase and having an increasing impact on our business.” Apple raised prices significantly last month to offset the rising costs of memory chips, but left iPhone prices stable, though they, too, are expected to rise in September.
Higher prices aside, there is sure to be tremendous demand for the new iPhones in September, especially the Ultra. And if RAM is still hard to get, that’s going to create something of a perfect storm for buyers, with stock of the iPhone Ultra likely selling out as quickly as the iPhone X and the hot new iPhone 18 color backordered for months.