Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Margins To Suffer Tremendously As DRAM Estimated To Make Up 42% Of BOM In H1 2027; SoC And OLED Cost Pennies In Comparison

wccftech | Aug. 10, 2026, 5:33 a.m. | Original

The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max launch is just a month away, and with Apple scrambling to get its hands on DRAM supply to complete the A20 Pro packaging, fresh data surrounding the Bill of Materials (BOM) for one variant has some terrible news for consumers. Next year, the 12GB LPDDR5X RAM found in the iPhone 18 Pro is expected to make up more than 40 percent of BOM, leaving Apple in a quandary as far as making profits go.

For both the 256GB versions of the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro, TrendForce reports that the chipset and display will continue to decrease in terms of BOM percentage. For Q3 2026’s estimated figures, DRAM will make up 34 percent of the iPhone 18 Pro’s total cost, whereas the newer OLED and A20 Pro will only comprise 10 percent. Unfortunately, if you thought that memory prices would finally stabilize, you’re sadly mistaken.

The image below shows the percentage breakdown of DRAM for the iPhone 18 Pro in the first half of 2027, with memory accounting for 42 percent of the BOM total, while the SoC and display each account for only 9 percent. While the NAND percentage isn’t mentioned in the report, Counterpoint Research estimates that 1TB of storage will consume $250 of total BOM , making it a sizable chunk.

iPhone 18 Pro DRAM to make up 42 percent of total BOM in H1 2027
Image credits - TrendForce

Pair this with DRAM, and that cost surges to $400, with the flagship’s retail price expected to increase by $200. Apple is certainly facing a dilemma like no other; on one hand, if it absorbs the NAND and DRAM margins, it might not make enough profit to justify a release to the masses, and if it passes those cost bumps to consumers, the iPhone 18 Pro may not garner sufficient shipments, putting a dent in the technology giant’s quarterly and annual revenue.

Interestingly, while TrendForce has shared all of this data, it has failed to provide estimates on how much the 256GB version of the iPhone 18 Pro will retail for in the U.S. Considering that DRAM prices are through the roof, Apple will need to meet halfway; passing some cost increases to customers while absorbing some hits along the way. As for how much of a hit we should expect, only the September keynote holds the answer to this elusive question.

News Source: TrendForce

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