iPhone 15's major upgrades could come with an unwelcome price jump

(Image credit: Future)

Recent weeks have seen multiple reports that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will see a price increase in the United States, although it wasn’t clear whether those price hikes would translate to international customers as well. We might now have our answer, and things are even worse than we’d feared.

According to a new report not only will those outside the United States suffer from the same iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max price increases that U.S. customers, but they will also pay more for other models.

If the report is accurate, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are going to cost more than the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus outside the United States.

Prices increase across the board

This is all according to the latest Power On newsletter by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, with the news being bad news for all.

“I would look out for at least minor price increases across all four models outside of the US,” Gurman said. That’s the first time we’ve heard of the non-Pro iPhones experiencing a price hike anywhere around the globe. Gurman went on to say that he “also wouldn’t rule out a price increase in the US — at least for some of the pro models — given the move to titanium and the costlier camera system on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.”

As for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, it’s likely that the price hikes come from a couple of things. The first is the ongoing economic uncertainty around the globe which continues to impact currency conversions. Apple may choose to increase prices to protect its bottom line when converting local currencies back into USD, for example.

The other thing worth noting is the additional features coming to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. Both are expected to gain the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island, while the best iPhone of 2022’s camera is also thought to be making the jump down the lineup. If that rumor comes to pass iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus buyers will benefit from 48-megapixel main cameras for the first time, all powered by the iPhone 14 Pro's A16 chip.

Apple is expected to announce all four iPhone 15 models this September, so we’ll know for sure soon enough.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.