According to sources from the supply chain and technology leaks, Apple is said to want to keep the iPhone selling price stable instead of sharply increasing prices across the entire product line.
To do this, the company may cut some specifications on the standard iPhone 18, while focusing on more upgrades for the Pro and Pro Max lines.
Some sources say Apple is optimizing costs in many stages such as screens, processors, memory and internal components.
According to leaked information, the standard iPhone 18 may have reduced screen brightness and use the A-series chip version with 4-core GPU instead of 5-core GPU like the Pro line. In addition, Apple is trying to bring the production cost of iPhone 18 closer to the cheaper iPhone 18e.
Some components between iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e are even said to be shared or swapped, showing that the gap between the two product lines is gradually narrowing.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models are said to still receive many major upgrades such as the 2nm A20 Pro chip, the C2 modem developed by Apple itself, and the changed aperture camera.
If the leaked information is accurate, Apple may be stepping up a product hierarchy strategy to maintain the price for the popular iPhone line but at the same time pull users to the higher Pro segment.
Some experts believe that this strategy can help Apple maintain its competitiveness in the context that the high-end smartphone market is increasingly under pressure from component costs.
