Morgan Stanley predicts Apple will raise its iPhone price for the first time in seven years

When Apple unveils its latest phone next week, the iPhone 17, analysts at Morgan Stanley Research expect new models to cost about $100 more. That won’t include like-for-like price hikes, but rather they expect the iPhone 17 Air to cost about $100 more than the iPhone 16 Plus and for Apple to eliminate some lower-storage options, effectively raising starting prices. Such a small boost, the analysts say, won’t hurt demand but will juice Apple’s revenue. They wrote:

“Importantly, we don’t see these pricing changes as likely to drive elastic iPhone 17 demand — the price hikes are modest in nature and when amortized over 2-3 years, shouldn’t serve as a material headwind to iPhone demand, and therefore we see pricing as an under-appreciated upside driver to Consensus FY26 expectations.”