iPhone 18 Pro Max, iPhone Ultra shortage is back on the menu

It's now officially August, which means that there's merely a month until the big iPhone 18 Pro Max unveiling takes place.

We'll witness many Apple changes, folks and even if the iPhone itself doesn't change in a radical way (neither on the outside nor on the inside), some things will go away this September:

• Tim Cook will leave his CEO position and will pass the baton on to John Ternus;
• The old iPhone Pro prices may be gone for good and we may have to deal with ~$300 price hikes;
• Supply chain stability could be a mirage;

Interesting times alright.

A coming shortage?

There's a short video by Reuters that's titled "Is Apple heading for an iPhone shortage?":

Now, Reuters is not stating anything with 100% certainty here—but because of how difficult and how expensive it is to get memory and storage chips (AI projects and data centers devour them)—users could face a significant delay in iPhone shipments.

This is merely a hint, a suggestion, but Reuters has a far better record for tech topics and leaks than the majority of social media tipsters out there.

Tim Cook has something to say, too

At the recent Apple earnings call, Tim Cook said that the industry is bracing, as the impact from the supply constraints will "increase significantly" in the months ahead. On a side note, Samsung is convinced that the chip shortage will last (at least) until 2028, as I recently reported.

You and I know very well that delays in iPhone shipments are not uncommon.

But it seems that there's a high demand for Apple products (particularly iPhones and Mac) and it has yielded "a demand beyond our expectation", the soon-to-be-ex-CEO Tim Cook highlighted.

What this would mean for you

This September, we're expecting only three new iPhones:

• iPhone 18 Pro Max
• iPhone 18 Pro
• iPhone Ultra (the first-ever foldable iPhone)

The baseline iPhone 18 and the alleged iPhone Air 2 will pop up at a point in the first half of 2027.

The iPhone Ultra is expected to gather a lot of attention… and with attention, pre-orders come. I'm not sure if the iPhone 18 Pro will be able to repeat the market success of its hit predecessor, the iPhone 17 Pro, but the chip shortage situation changes the whole picture.

If too many people pre-order the new iPhone family, well, it would mean that Apple won't be able to deal with the demand and shipment delays could be on the menu.

Won't the price hikes hurt sales?

I'd say so—yes, particularly if the rumored $300 price hike turns out to be a real thing. But we can't ignore the fact that long-term Apple users are a bit desensitized to Apple's price hikes, generally speaking. Apple managed to sell its iPhone even way before the Android competition crossed the $1,000 psychological line in terms of price tags.

2026 is the year when Apple tests its users' loyalty.

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