Anyone still planning to buy an iPhone 17 should hurry: Apple has raised prices on four models, even though some of them are already nearly a year old. The models affected are the iPhone 16, iPhone 17, iPhone 17e, and iPhone Air, with price increases of up to 150 euros per device.
TL;DR: On September 9, 2026, Apple raised the prices of its previous iPhone models at the same time it unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo. The iPhone 16, iPhone 17, and iPhone 17e now cost 150 euros more, while the iPhone Air costs 100 to 350 euros more, depending on the storage variant. Apple CEO Tim Cook cites skyrocketing prices for memory chips, driven by the AI boom, as the reason.
These prices now apply to the iPhone 16, 17, 17e, and Air
The price increase applies exclusively to older, resold models and not to the brand-new iPhone 18 series. The following prices have been in effect at the official Apple Store since September 9, 2026:
| Model | Storage | Old Price | New Price | Markup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 16 | 128 GB | €849 | €999 | +150 € |
| iPhone 17e | 256 GB | €699 | €849 | +150 € |
| iPhone 17e | 512 GB | €949 | €1,099 | +150 € |
| iPhone 17 | 256 GB | €949 | €1,099 | +150 € |
| iPhone 17 | 512 GB | €1,199 | €1,349 | +150 € |
| iPhone Air | 256 GB | €1,199 | €1,299 | +100 € |
| iPhone Air | 512 GB | €1,449 | €1,549 | +100 € |
| iPhone Air | 1 TB | €1,699 | €2,049 | +350 € |
Accordingly, buyers of the large 1-TB version of the iPhone Air are hit the hardest, having to pay a whopping 350 euros more than before the announcement. For the standard storage models, the price increase ranges from 100 to 150 euros.
Why is older iPhone hardware, of all things, getting more expensive?
What’s particularly unusual is that Apple is adjusting prices not for the new model lineup, but for the already established one. Apple CEO Tim Cook cited massive increases in the cost of memory and flash chips as the reason in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He compared the current situation to a “once-in-a-century flood,” triggered by the enormous demand for RAM and storage chips for AI data centers and so-called “neoclouds.” Cook said, verbatim, that he had “never seen anything like this in over 40 years.”
The memory shortage isn’t affecting Apple alone: Other manufacturers of smartphones, laptops, and graphics cards are also currently struggling with rising prices for NAND flash and DRAM chips, because cloud providers and AI companies are practically buying up the entire global production capacity for memory modules.
Coinciding with the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo
The price increase did not come out of the blue; rather, it coincided exactly with the day Apple unveiled its new flagship series, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. In addition, the iPhone Duo (starting at 2,299 euros) introduced a completely new foldable device to Apple’s lineup. So anyone who has just been familiarizing themselves with the size differences and antenna details of the iPhone 17 Air will now have to dig deeper into their pockets for that very model.
In the U.S., the price increases were significantly more moderate: all four affected models saw a uniform increase of $100. In Europe and Germany, the jump is correspondingly higher, at 150 euros in some cases—an effect many buyers are already familiar with from previous Apple price hikes.
What does this mean for buyers?
Anyone who still wants to buy one of the affected models will now have to pay more. According to initial reports, however, discounts at specialty retailers are likely to take some time to align with the new MSRPs. In the short term, it’s therefore worth comparing prices at retailers who are still selling off their inventory at the old prices.
Anyone waiting for a new device anyway should keep in mind that, according to Cook, the supply shortage isn’t a short-term problem. If the trend continues, further price adjustments can’t be ruled out—even for future models like a possible iPhone 20 Pro Max.
Conclusion
iPhone 17 prices are rising noticeably for the first time since the device’s launch, and with them, the prices for the iPhone 16, 17e, and Air. The reason is not new features, but the global shortage of memory chips, which is being fueled by the AI boom. Anyone looking to buy one of the affected models should compare current retail offers before the higher prices take hold there as well.
Sources: MacRumors,
