Going against recent claims of only a small price hike for the iPhone 17 range, a new report says there will be significant cost increases.

Price rises have been expected for the iPhone 17 range since Trump began his "reciprocal" tariffs, but recent reports have suggested they will be minimal. Most reports expect Apple to repeat a previous price rise technique by increasing the cost of the iPhone, but masking it with an increase in storage.

That approach means offering bringing up the base storage of an iPhone to match what the same money would have bought in the previous range. However, now market research firm TrendForce claims that there will be larger increases that are more than this technique can cushion the blow.

As with all other recent reports, TrendForce believes that the base iPhone 17 model will be sold at the same $799 that the current iPhone 16 is. But it expects that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will rise by $100 — and the iPhone 17 Pro by $200.

In the case of the iPhone 17 Pro, TrendForce does agree that Apple will increase the base storage from 128GB to 256GB. But the current iPhone 16 Pro can be bought with 256GB for $1,099.

TrendForce does not, though, expect Apple to increase the base storage of its iPhone 17 Pro Max to 512GB. The company believes Apple will instead keep it at 256GB.

Currently, an iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199 and has 256GB storage. So TrendForce is predicting a straight $100 price hike for this model, with no storage change.

More optimistic price predictions

Most recently, JP Morgan predicted that the iPhone 17 Pro would increase from $999 to $1,099. But it also said that the base storage would rise to 256GB.

JP Morgan based that assumption on how Apple has, at least for now, been made exempt from Trump's 100% semiconductor tariffs. The investment firm believes this means the iPhone 17 price increase therefore won't be because of tariffs, despite Apple facing $2 billion in tariff costs by the end of September.

TrendForce also disagrees with reports such as JP Morgan's over the expected iPhone 17 Air. While JP Morgan thinks Apple will price it to match the outgoing iPhone 17 Plus at $899.

JP Morgan also said that the iPhone 17 Air might rise to $949. But then it says there's a chance Apple will release it at $800 in order to have it eligible for government subsidies in China.

TrendForce ignores that option, and also says that the iPhone 17 Air will not be price-matched to the iPhone 16 Plus. Instead, it is predicting a starting price for the iPhone 17 Air at $1,099.

Note that TrendForce says only that this pricing and specification report is "based on current market information and analyst projections." It does not cite any further sources.

It is the only source currently predicting such a large price increase, and one that is not or at least not entirely masked by storage changes.

Such storage increases have been effective before because of how many iPhone buyers already pay for extra storage, compared to those who stay on the base amount. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) even claims that about half of US iPhone buyers chose the higher, more expensive storage tiers.

All iPhone 17 pricing, at least for the US, will be announced by Apple during its "Awe Dropping" event on September 9, 2025.