While the strengths of the foldable “iPhone Duo” drew attention at the latest event, the successor to the iPhone 17 was not announced, and the impact of price revisions and the weaker yen has been reported.
At the new-product launch event, no successor positioned as a lower-end model of the iPhone 18 Pro was announced, leading to speculation that Apple had shelved successors to the iPhone 17 and lower-priced models.
The background is reportedly the surge in memory prices and other cost increases, and some observers say Apple may be considering a strategy of postponing the launch of models for which passing higher costs on to customers would be difficult.
In Japan, the price of the iPhone 17 was revised alongside the latest new-product announcement. The 256GB storage model was priced at ¥159,800, up from ¥129,800 when it launched in 2025, after rising to ¥142,800 in the July 2026 revision. The cumulative increase is approximately ¥30,000.
Foreign exchange factors cited as contributing to the price increase include the weaker yen, at around ¥160 to the US dollar, and a US$100 price increase for existing models in the United States. This is said to indicate that Apple intends to reflect price fluctuations even in lower-priced models.
Against this backdrop, there is speculation that further increases in memory costs would make a price revision for successor models unavoidable, and that Apple’s wait-and-see strategy will create difficulties for the company going forward.