Another analyst sees a price hike in the U.S. for the iPhone 15 Pro line
Last month we told you that Wedbush analyst Dan Ives was forecasting a price hike for the iPhone 15 series including U.S. models which have had an unchanged price tag since 2017. Ives isn't the only Wall Streeter calling for Apple to raise iPhone pricing this year with some expecting as much as a $200 increase for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. That model is expected to be the first iPhone to sport a periscope lens which will increase the optical zoom on the device to as much as 6x from the current 3x on the iPhone 14 Pro series.
MacRumors was able to read a research note from Barclay's Tim Long. After speaking with supply chain outfits in Asia, Long expects Apple to raise the price of the iPhone 15 Pro by $100 over the iPhone 14 Pro. The latter starts at $999 for the 128GB variant. He says that the iPhone 15 Pro Max could have a starting price of $1,199 or $1,299 which would be a raise of $100 or $200 respectively over the iPhone 14 Pro Max price. Long says that the periscope lens would add $50 to the bill of materials for the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Long expects pricing for the non-Pro iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus to stay the same which would mean starting prices for those two models will remain at $799 for the iPhone 15 and $899 for the iPhone 15 Plus.
Based on his forecast, Long sees the pricing for the iPhone 15 series in the U.S. looking like this:
- iPhone 15-$799 (flat with last year).
- iPhone 15 Plus-$899 (flat with last year).
- iPhone 15 Pro-$1,099 (+$100 over last year).
- iPhone 15 Pro Max-$1,199 to $1,299 (+100 or $200 over last year.
The iPhone 15 line is expected to be unveiled in September despite recent concerns from Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan who says that the new phones might not get released until October after his check of Apple's supply chain. Another rumor that two sources have passed along suggests that we could see shortages of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max at launch due to production issues that suppliers have been having with a new manufacturing process for the displays used by the iPhone 15 Pro models.
Apple hasn't hiked U.S. iPhone prices since 2017
Last year, Apple raised prices in some countries while leaving U.S. prices alone because of the strong U.S. dollar. A strong dollar means that iPhone units sold in foreign countries fetch fewer dollars when converted into U.S. currency. Raising the price of the iPhone in markets where the dollar is strong will increase Apple's take in U.S. Dollars. The U.S. Dollar Index is down 4.3% over the last year which means Apple might not feel the need to hike iPhone price overseas this year.
Many big companies like Apple will try to hedge some of their currency exposure in the foreign exchange market.
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