Apple has significantly lowered its demand expectations for the standard iPhone 17 due to rising hardware costs, a Chinese leaker claimed today.
According to the “Fixed Focus Digital” account on Weibo, some production lines of the standard iPhone 17 this week moved from a previous 15% reduction to a plan to suspend about a third of their capacity. The leaker also claimed that Apple had conducted a “very serious” internal assessment of the impact that higher hardware costs could have on demand.
The claims cannot be independently verified, and the post does not specify whether the production adjustments apply to overall iPhone 17 production or only certain manufacturing lines, so caution is advised.
Rising component costs are impacting the global electronics industry due to intense demand from AI companies eager to maximize data center buildouts, and Apple is far from immune.
The doubling of the cost of memory and storage chips over the past year recently led Apple to raise prices on several product lines, which CEO Tim Cook called “inevitable.” iPhones have been spared the hikes so far, but Apple is widely expected to use the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro models in September as an opportunity to raise prices across its entire smartphone lineup.
Apple is expected to unveil a next-generation iPhone 18 model next spring alongside a new iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2, as part of a new split launch strategy.
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