Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Apple is reportedly considering a price increase for the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup while banking on new features to justify it.
- Higher iPhone prices would allow Android brands to raise their own without losing competitive advantage, which isn’t good news for Android fans.
The iPhone 17 series is largely expected to launch sometime in September this year, following Apple’s annual tradition. The company is said to be planning a launch schedule shakeup, but that isn’t happening this year, at least. However, what could happen this year is a price rise across the iPhone 17 lineup, and that’s bad news for us Android fans.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple is weighing a price increase for its “fall iPhone lineup,” i.e., the iPhone 17 series. However, it seems Apple doesn’t want to attribute the price increase to US tariffs on goods from China, despite them being one of the contributing factors. Instead, the company is said to be banking on new features and design changes to potentially justify the price increase.
The Trump administration had imposed a 20% tariff on all goods from China, which remains in place. This is separate from the reciprocal tariffs that had recently climbed up to an additional 125%, which are now temporarily brought down to 10%, though note that smartphones were exempted from these reciprocal tariffs in the first place.
Like several other companies, Apple has been trying to shift its production out of China to soften the impact of tariffs on the prices of its products sold in the US. India is next in line as a production center, but the country’s infrastructure and technical capabilities aren’t yet sufficient to support mass production at China’s scale. As a result, China will handle the bulk of the production of Apple’s high-end Pro and Pro Max iPhones.
iPhone 17 price increase is bad news for Android fans
Apple has done an incredible job keeping the starting price of the iPhone lineup fixed at $829, going back to the iPhone 14 series at least. Apple advertises a starting price of $799 for the iPhone 16, but that is after a $30 activation discount on select carriers. Even for the Pro iPhone, Apple has largely kept prices fixed, starting at $999 for the current iPhone 16 Pro at 128GB.
It’s no secret that most Android manufacturers see Apple as their biggest competitor, especially in the premium segment. Prices of Android flagships are anchored around the pricing for the latest iPhone, with all attempts made to undercut the iPhone in price or value. Android OEMs do this by keeping their margins much thinner, and some even adopt alternate monetization routes like bundling in extra third-party apps (aka bloatware) to keep things economically sound.
If the price of the iPhone 17 increases, Android OEMs will have some pressure eased off them, too. They, in turn, will be able to raise the prices of their phones while maintaining their competitive advantage. Many of them are affected by tariffs too, directly or indirectly, as well as the ever-increasing cost of production. As a result, you can expect smartphones to become more expensive in general, as it is unlikely that most OEMs will absorb all the increased costs without passing them onto the consumers. Whatever Apple does, Android OEMs will do too, which is bad news for fans in this case.
What are your thoughts on the iPhone 17’s purported price increase? Do you think Android OEMs will also raise the prices of their phones? Let us know in the comments below!
