According to the latest report from South Korea's KB Securities, Apple plans to equip the standard version of the iPhone 18 released next year with 12GB of memory to fully support its most powerful device-side AI model and related Siri functions. The report quoted industry chain sources as saying that Apple will use this hardware upgrade to allow more users to experience the improved voice performance and dictation accuracy brought by the new generation of Siri, while maintaining the existing pricing strategy of the model.
Apple officially released the new Siri AI at WWDC 2026 and said that the most powerful version of the model can bring more expressive Siri voices and significant accuracy improvements in system-level dictation, but only if the device has 12GB of unified memory. Among the current models, only iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max meet this configuration requirement and therefore can fully enable the above enhanced features, while iPhone 17 with only 8GB of memory does not have the opportunity to experience all new features.
KB Securities pointed out that the iPhone 18 will eliminate the functional differences within this product line by increasing the memory of the standard model to 12GB, so that the base model can also run the strongest AI model and new Siri capabilities. More importantly, the report states that Apple will not use this to increase the price of iPhone 18, but will choose to absorb the cost pressure caused by it.
This is the second time news has pointed to plans to upgrade the memory of the entire iPhone 18 series. As early as October last year, the Korean media The Bell reported that the memory capacity of the iPhone 18 would be 50% higher than that of the previous model, which was regarded by the outside world as "freeing up" hardware resources in advance for the implementation of large-scale AI functions.
In order to meet the huge demand for memory in the new generation of iPhones, Apple has asked the supply chain to increase the supply scale of LPDDR5X chips. KB Securities disclosed that Apple will continue to purchase mobile DRAM from Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron, the three major global memory manufacturers, and lock in supply at a level higher than the market price to ensure that the pace of new machine releases and the promotion of AI experience are not affected. The report also pointed out that Apple prefers to absorb costs internally to avoid passing on rising storage costs directly to consumers.
In terms of product planning, the report mentioned that iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and folding screen iPhone are expected to be unveiled in the fall of 2026. The iPhone 18 standard version, iPhone Air 2 and iPhone 18e are scheduled to be launched in the first half of 2027, forming a two-stage release rhythm. In the context of on-device AI becoming the focus of a new round of smartphone competition, the entire iPhone 18 series is moving towards 12GB of memory, which is generally regarded as Apple’s key hardware layout around the new Siri and AI experience.