The increase in global storage prices will not only affect domestic manufacturers, but even Apple, which has extremely high prices, cannot bear it.According to analyst Schrödinger, Apple is exploring price increases for the Pro Max model. In addition, Apple also planned to upgrade the iPhone 18 to 12GB of memory, but due to cost control, it had to downgrade the originally planned M14 panel to an M12+ panel.
M14 is Samsung's current flagship luminescent material and has excellent performance in peak brightness, luminous efficiency and power consumption control; while the M12+ panel has been used in iPhone 14 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S23 and other models four years ago, and its overall display performance is not as good as the former.
Apple made this adjustment based on multiple considerations. On the one hand, Apple stated at WWDC 2026 that larger memory is the key to running high-end end-side AI functions and extending the device life cycle.Since the iPhone 17 is only equipped with 8GB of memory, it cannot be equipped with the most powerful Apple Intelligence large model. Therefore, the standard 12GB memory of the entire iPhone 18 series has become a necessary layout to adapt to the AI ecosystem.
On the other hand, facing cost pressure, Apple plans to increase the price of the iPhone 18 Pro Max version.The standard version, which is aimed at price-sensitive users, chooses to control costs on screen hardware with lower sensitivity. This is to optimize resource allocation, not simply to reduce quality.
In addition to memory and screen, news broke that the iPhone 18 standard version will also be equipped with TSMC's 2nm process A20 chip, Apple's self-developed C2 5G baseband and N2 wireless chip, relying on energy efficiency optimization on the chip side to hedge against power consumption problems caused by screen degradation.