The iPhone 18 Pro will start at $1,249–$1,299 when it ships on Friday, September 18, a jump of $150–$200 over last year’s Pro line, according to TrendForce estimates circulated by MacRumors. The Pro Max starts at $1,349–$1,399. The foldable iPhone Ultra lands somewhere between $2,099 and $2,299, with a top storage tier that could clear $3,000.

The price story isn’t really about Apple’s margins. It’s about DRAM. TrendForce puts the year-on-year cost of a 256GB memory chip up nearly 400%, pushing the Pro’s bill of materials roughly 38% higher. As 9to5Mac’s Ben Lovejoy notes, memory sat at around 10% of an iPhone’s component cost last year and is expected to exceed 40% next year. That’s the AI-era supply squeeze arriving inside a consumer product line, priced through.

For B2C small businesses in Apple’s orbit, the calendar is the story. Apple’s September 9 event confirms specs. Pre-orders open Saturday, September 12 at 12 a.m. Pacific, a day later than the usual Friday slot because September 11 falls on the anniversary. Devices ship the 18th. That’s a five-day sprint for accessory sellers, repair shops, camera-forward retailers, and hospitality operators to refresh listings, storefront photography, and promotional content.

The refresh matters more than in past cycles. iOS 27’s Visual Intelligence ships with the new hardware and functions as a camera-based discovery layer for local businesses. Signage, menus, and product shots that photograph cleanly get surfaced. Grainy, outdated, or cluttered ones don’t.

Two caveats reshape the pipeline. Apple supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes the iPhone Ultra may not open for pre-order until Q4, citing manufacturing constraints. TechRepublic reports the standard iPhone 18, 18e, and second-generation iPhone Air could be held until spring 2027. So the September wave is a Pro-only wave, aimed at the top of the buyer distribution, priced accordingly.

The businesses that treat this week as a photography and listings deadline will be legible to the next generation of iPhone cameras. The ones that wait until October will be discovering, in real time, what illegibility costs.

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