(Translation of an original PlanHub article)
Bad news, the iPhone 15 Pro and its Max version will cost more. Several factors can explain this price increase, here are a few.
Cover image credit: Apple
If you’re waiting for the iPhone 15 Pro, you’re going to have to save a little more in order to afford it. According to HowtoiSolve, the price of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are expected to increase compared to the iPhone 14 Pro they will be replacing.
Apple has already made a price increase on the iPhone 14 in order to adjust to the U.S. dollar, which continues to strengthen against other currencies, but the iPhone 15 Pro is expected to cost more and several factors explain this new increase.
The iPhone 14 Max is not selling well
We have already mentioned it, but the iPhone 14 Max has very little interest in the eyes of Apple users. Despite its size, it costs barely $100 less than the iPhone 14 Pro which offers better performance and more advanced technology. With a Titanium design for the iPhone 15 Pro and a 3nm processor, the difference will be even more striking, hence Apple’s interest to separate the two models by a higher price barrier.
An expensive 3nm processor
Apple will not only take advantage of TSMC’s new 3nm etching process, but it will also ensure its exclusivity for a period of 6 months. Apple had to invest to reserve the production lines, which remains an additional cost and must therefore make up for it on the price of the iPhone. If we don’t know the price that Apple pays to TSMC, as a comparison, it cost 6.9 billion dollars to Nvidia to ensure the production of chips engraved in 5nm at TSMC, and this without reserving any exclusivity on the engraving in 5nm.
The US dollar is too strong
Beyond the Ukrainian crisis is reflected in Europe, the policy of “whatever it takes” during the Covid crisis has the effect of depreciating the various currencies that lose their value against the dollar. On the other hand, even though the cost of transportation has returned to its pre-Covid level, the cost of raw materials has increased, for example, the price of aluminum has more than doubled between 2020 and 2022, going from $1500 to $3500 per ton and currently falling to $2100. Since transactions are made in US dollars, Apple has already had to raise its prices to keep up.
Titanium design and a camera worth the price
Apple never stops introducing innovations, sometimes major, in its phones and the iPhone 15 Pro should not escape the rule with a frame designed entirely in titanium. If this metal is even more noble and much more resistant than aluminum, its price is also ten times higher, $20 per kilo against $2 for aluminum.
The same goes for the camera, which with its seven different sensors makes the price of the current iPhone 14 Pro soar. If Apple plans little change for the iPhone 15 Pro at this level, its sensors remain expensive to manufacture.
