iPhone 18 Pro and Foldable iPhone Could Sell Out Fast Due to Memory Shortage

[zenmacx]

What we're witnessing is a masterful demonstration of controlling the marketing narrative, convincing the faithful and creating FOMO that drives sales, making them the envy of other tech giants.

 

[GMShadow]

The problem is, analyst Tim Culpan isn't credible at all.

He claimed MacBook Neo used binned chips, when teardowns clearly showed it used freshly fabbed A18 Pro chips. Apple was supposedly overwhelmed by demand but somehow, Neo remains widely available today.

In all likelihood, this is another crying wolf claim.

Was coming here to say this. The guy is bad even by analyst standards.

 

[McWetty]

Lucky for Apple, I’m skipping this year and next. There’s 2 phones they can sell to someone else. My 16P is going to go the distance. Maybe 2028?

 

[Michael Scrip]

iPhone 4S
iPhone 5S
iPhone 6S Plus
iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 18 Pro Max

This is my year! Yes, y'all please boycott so I can get mine quickly.

😎

 

[cdsapplefan]

Ya’ll better know which iPhone Model you want, because that returning and undecided will cause you major delays. I went through it last year where I was trying to decide between the new thin model iPhone Air and the 17 Pro Max. I will probably go with the Pro Max this year and skip the Ultra expensive iPhone Fold.

 

[contacos]

I mean I am okay with Samsung "technically" asking 2,100€ for their Fold8 cuz you can always get it down to like 700€ with all their promo codes, free storage upgrade and trade- in deals but Apple never has such things so paying literal retail for what will most likely start at only 256 GB as well (I currently only use 80 GB of 512 GB but it's more like a principle thing), would hurt a lot more

 

[Taq'aix]

Apple’s marketing strategy is built on FOMO. It’s psychological marketing designed to convince you that you need an upgrade, even when you don’t. 80–95% of iPhone owners could keep using their current phone without any major issues.

The solution is simple. Don’t buy a new iPhone every September. 👌

 

[Michael Scrip]

Apple’s marketing strategy is built on FOMO. It’s psychological marketing designed to convince you that you need an upgrade, even when you don’t.

The solution is simple. Don’t buy a new iPhone every September. 👌

It's not just Apple. Every company does this.

Samsung released the Galaxy S26 this year even though the Galaxy S25 came out last year. And the S24 before it... and the S23... S22... S21... etc. Same for Pixel 11, 10, 9, 8, and so on.

But you're right... you don't have to buy a new phone every year.

And most people don't.

2-3 years was common... now it's 3-4 years.

😎

 

[osx64]

17 Pros were really popular, doubt that most people who bought them are upgrading this soon, especially if the prices go up.

 

[Quasselstripper]

show your dissatisfaction by not buying not kvetching - not a boycott per see but waiting for sanity to return

Siri AI is not even available in my country (EU) so not a big reason to upgrade tbj

 

[svish]

Expecting only the usual shipping time frame for pre ordered iPhones. It will quickly shift by 2 to 3 weeks after pre order opens. But for the fold, it could launch only in certain countries initially and could have much longer waiting time.

 

[whitby]

To be honest I am not sure I see the point of this article. What are we supposed to do about it, rush to buy them when they are released, which is pretty much what early adopters do anyway? Every year we get warnings about limited supply on the first run or they have underestimated demand and so on. Now we have limited parts supply as the excuse. In the end if you want to upgrade or buy an 18 series iPhone it is going to be the usual race by those that care and for those that take their time it will be an even longer wait.

I used to want the latest, but I can wait if I want one now and if it takes 6 months to deliver, I am not going lose any sleep over it. I still remember the first iPhone when it was released (we still have the ones my wife and I bought and waited in line for 3 hours to get) but then it was exciting and I was younger. Now the upgrades look to be fairly boring and the excitement has gone and I am older.

This article is pure fear mongering to the ones who care and seems intent on driving demand to make sure we really do run out of product early. Or am I being too cynical. 😂

 

[HiFifreak]

Fear of not going to sell enough? So we say "hurry, its gone be sold out soon"?

 

[Squidiey]

AI is the biggest abomination in the history of information technology 😭 I can’t even find a good deal on HDD’s
I wouldn’t be surprised if iPhone 20 is released but at a $1999 starting price next year at this point.
This year has been beyond lunacy.

Specifically, Cloud AI chatbots.

 

[Squidiey]

not buying this propaganda. they're playing on artificial scarcity to inflate demand and justify their $2,499 base price for a damn phone. makes sense since they need to recoup after the generational flops that were the vision pro and the iphone air.

Yeah I feel the so-called “memory shortage” is kinda propaganda

A RAM stick’s raw components are pretty simple (Iron, Aluminum, Copper, Gold, etc.) but those fricking gas-hole corps are wanting to make us stupid

 

[Korito]

Lucky for Apple, I’m skipping this year and next. There’s 2 phones they can sell to someone else. My 16P is going to go the distance. Maybe 2028?

2030 my friend. My nephew has an iPhone 11 PM, his battery lasts whole day and he is not missing out a single thing. Nor will you. I was buying yearly, but with 15 series I finally came to my senses and now I'm driving this phone until it's useless. Thanks to Apple quality and software we can do this, even they say you don't have to upgrade so frequently.

 

[Korito]

17 Pros were really popular, doubt that most people who bought them are upgrading this soon, especially if the prices go up.

They would be crazy if so. Nobody will miss anything. It's a damn phone, you look at it, or make a call and you put it in your pocket. Its size, design etc is so irrelevant because of this. You'll run the same software on 14, 15...17 as on 18. Cameras are good enough for years now, for better pictures you buy a DSLR. And so on... </ rant about saving money and common sense over >

 

[uacd]

I regret upgrading to 17 Pro and will sell it at any good moment and will downgrade to 11 Pro when I fix it. This is not a phone that is making me any happier. Camera is abomination, it will get only worse in 18 Pro, phone is fat, thick and heavy, uncomfortable to hold in one hand with or without case (and using it without case for its price - I am no crazy).

More than 10 years ago I thought that every year we are gonna be getting better technology. And where we are now, in a corporate hell where 5 trillion dollar corporations dictate which battery, phone and display size we should have?

And what did we actually get in these 10 years, the silly features Androids had back in 2016, like simultaneous recording on two cameras, recording pausing and lockscreen customizations? Laughable! And top game for an iPhone is still GTA San Andreas🤣🤣🤷‍♂️

Imagine my anger, I was holding off from upgrading ever since 15. Each time I tried to wait out every single stupid problem that Apple couldn’t fix - overheating, problems with batteries, this, that, “anticipated better cameras”. In fact maybe I would have been happier with 15 and should have not wasted my time. Despite vapor chamber 17 Pro overheats for me. I am aware 17 PM doesn’t do it as much but I need a compact phone, and 17 Pro already falls short of that.

No, I mean f that. I am buying a 5s purely for natural photos, fixing my 11 Pro to stay connected, buying a dumb watch for time and step tracking, and fixing my old DSLR (because I don’t like any mirrorless cameras that are on the market, as well as they are hella expensive) NOT A DIME to these greedy companies until they cater to MY needs

 

[DrRadon]

its going to be interesting to see if and how far this is going to tank with the alleged price increase for essentially the same product.

When you look at Sony (and obviously other companies as well) you can see how the attempts to squeeze as much money out of your customer as possible instead of providing a product that will simply sell because it´s great in many aspects.

If people end up buying this iPhone 18 Pro as if nothing has happened prices will never go back down. If some of these big releases actually fail we might see some more consumer friendly practices in the upcoming years. I can´t imagine the PS6 flying of the shelves if it´s 1200+€ with the additional promise of you never getting competing sales prices on software due to no physical media.

It all comes down to vote with your wallet, it´s the only vote they will listen to. Now let's wait and see if people are poor and or smart enough to not show up in a significant enough number for Apple. (we already know news blogs will be posting that its bad because someone on twitter got 12 likes on saying that it´s to expensive, but apple, the industry, cares about real numbers)

 

[miq]

not buying this propaganda. they're playing on artificial scarcity to inflate demand and justify their $2,499 base price for a damn phone. makes sense since they need to recoup after the generational flops that were the vision pro and the iphone air.

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

[dumastudetto]

iPhone Ultra will slip to 3-4 months delivery times within hours of the pre-orders going live. Literally everyone wants one.

 

[Sir Ruben]

Are we still pretending that the iPhone foldable is going to sell gangbusters? I know we need a bit of hype at this stage but come on 🙄

I'll be 110% sticking with my iPhone 17 Pro for a couple of years at least, too many times have I shelled out yet another 1k for marginal updates. Those days are gone. Even if I was updating this year, it wouldn't be the foldable, I still can't find that killer reason to spend so much - a slightly bigger viewing window for video content? Is there anything else?? (apart from worse cameras and worse durability of course).

What does it do? What is it the solution to??

 

[Sir Ruben]

iPhone Ultra will slip to 3-4 months delivery times within hours of the pre-orders going live. Literally everyone wants one.

It will sell to the same bored people that splurged on the Vision Pro. Then it will drop off a cliff.

 

[Abazigal]

What we're witnessing is a masterful demonstration of controlling the marketing narrative, convincing the faithful and creating FOMO that drives sales, making them the envy of other tech giants.

Apple products generally sell themselves without the need for manufactured hype. A particular model of the 17 pro max was out of stock in my country for months. Fresh stock to the Apple Store was wiped out within that same afternoon. I know because I was there camping by the Apple Store website.

The demand for iPhones will always be there because out of a billion strong active user base, even a 4 year upgrade cycle works out to anywhere between 200 and 300 million iPhones sold each year.

That’s really all the marketing Apple needs - a proven track record for delivering a great user experience made possible by their control over hardware and software.

 

[emulator]

It's not just Apple. Every company does this.

And the grand master is still Nintendo, now and forever.