Good news: Apple cuts iPhone 17 Pro prices in Israel | First publication
Apple has instructed its Israeli importers to cut prices for the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max by $90 (approx. 270 shekels) starting this week. The move comes as a surprise following recent price hikes for MacBooks and iPads due to the global memory chip shortage.
The news in brief: Apple is cutting the prices of the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in Israel by 90 dollars. The company has instructed importers to lower the price starting tomorrow. The move comes two months after a price increase of up to 25% on MacBook and iPad devices. Next month, Apple is expected to present the next generation of Pro devices, with production costs estimated to be 40% higher.
Good news for those who planned to purchase an iPhone now: Apple is demanding that its importers in Israel — iDigital, KSP, Mahsanei Hashmal, and iStore — lower the prices of the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max by 90 dollars starting tomorrow (Thursday), without explaining the move. This is our first report on N12. Based on a dollar exchange rate of about 3 shekels, this is a price reduction of about 270 shekels.
On the face of it, this is a surprising move, as it is 180 degrees opposite to the company's announcement less than two months ago, when Apple raised the prices of MacBook and iPad devices by 15%–25%. That price hike took place against the backdrop of a surge in memory component prices, which Apple CEO Tim Cook defined as unprecedented. The rise in memory component prices is weighing on the entire computing and electronics industry and stems from a dramatic shortage. The crisis has been dubbed "Ramageddon" — a portmanteau of RAM and Armageddon — and stems from the huge demand for memory components by server farms running artificial intelligence (AI) models. According to the research firm TrendForce, memory component prices jumped by more than 90% in the first quarter of the year and by another 60% in the second quarter.
Apple's new price reduction comes at a time when the tech world still does not know if the launch of the next generation of iPhone 18 devices in September will be accompanied by the traditional price reduction for previous generation devices. This year, Apple decided to split the launch of the iPhone 18 models and is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max next month, along with rumors of a new foldable iPhone. The new base model is expected to be unveiled only in the spring of 2027.
According to TrendForce, the component crisis is expected to increase the production cost of the iPhone 18 Pro by almost 40% compared to the current generation, which may actually lead to an increase in the prices of the older 17 models as well. In the meantime, one can at least take comfort in the fresh price reduction.
