Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max went on sale September 18, marking the first flagship launch under new CEO John Ternus. Both models cost $100 more than last year's iPhone 17 Pro lineup, an increase Apple has attributed in part to a global shortage of memory and storage chips that has pushed component costs higher across the smartphone industry.
To soften the blow, wireless carriers have sharply increased trade-in incentives: maximum credits now reach $1,200 for both the Pro and Pro Max, up from $1,100 offered for last year's iPhone 17 Pro Max. The bigger discounts suggest carriers are trying to keep upgrade cycles moving even as the sticker price climbs.
The launch lands amid an unusually tense week for the broader AI and tech industry, with Apple's hardware release sharing headlines alongside a fresh round of warnings from AI industry leaders about the pace of AI development — underscoring how consumer hardware and frontier AI risk are now competing for the same news cycle.
Source: Yahoo Finance
