Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 and its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, while raising prices for existing models by $100 on its online store. The new starting prices are $799 for the iPhone 16, $699 for the iPhone 17e, $899 for the iPhone 17 and $1,099 for the iPhone Air. In India, prices have reportedly increased by about 20.5%. Apple also discontinued the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. The move reverses the usual pattern in which older iPhones become cheaper after a new generation launches. A global shortage of memory and storage chips, driven by stronger demand from AI companies and cloud providers building large data centers, has increased component costs. In a June interview with The Wall Street Journal, former Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple could no longer fully absorb those costs and might need to reconsider pricing. About a week later, Apple increased prices across its Mac and iPad lineups. Competition from higher-priced Samsung and Google devices, along with Apple's Upgrade program for spreading payments over manageable monthly installments, are additional factors in the company's pricing decision.