Report: Apple Considering Raising iPhone Prices

People visit an Apple store promoting its iPhone 16 at an outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP)
People visit an Apple store promoting its iPhone 16 at an outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Report: Apple Considering Raising iPhone Prices

People visit an Apple store promoting its iPhone 16 at an outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP)
People visit an Apple store promoting its iPhone 16 at an outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP)

Apple is weighing price hikes for its upcoming fall iPhone lineup, but is keen to avoid linking any increases to US tariffs on imports from China, where most of its devices are assembled, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The technology giant's shares were up 7% in premarket trading, tracking gains in the wider market after Washington and Beijing agreed to temporarily slash the reciprocal tariffs on Monday. But Chinese imports will still be subject to a 30% levy in the US.

Apple is among the most prominent firms caught in US-China trade tensions, which intensified in recent months after a series of tariffs initiated by President Donald Trump.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the WSJ report, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Raising prices could help Apple cushion higher costs stemming from the tariffs that have hampered global supply chains and forced the company to shift more production to India.

Apple said earlier this month that tariffs were expected to add about $900 million in costs during the April-June quarter and that it would source a majority of the iPhones sold in the US in the period from India.

Analysts have for months speculated about a price increase from Apple, but warned that such a move could cost it market share, especially as rivals such as Samsung try to attract consumers with AI features that Apple has been slow to roll out.

The cheapest iPhone 16 model was launched in the US with a sticker price of $799, but could cost as much as $1,142 due to tariffs, per projections last month from Rosenblatt Securities, which say the cost could rise by 43%.

The WSJ report said Apple was planning on coupling the price hikes with new features and design changes including an ultrathin design, which could help justify the increases.



Microsoft Looks to Boost AI Performance in European Languages

FILE PHOTO: Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo
TT
20

Microsoft Looks to Boost AI Performance in European Languages

FILE PHOTO: Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Microsoft signage is seen at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo

US tech behemoth Microsoft is investing millions of dollars to funnel more European-language data into AI development, company president Brad Smith told AFP Monday.

With today's leading AI models mostly trained on material in English, "the survival of these languages and the health of these cultures is quite literally at stake" without a course correction, Smith said in an interview.

AI models are "less capable when it is in a language that has insufficient data," he added -- which could push more users to switch to English even when it is not their native language.

Microsoft will from September set up research units in the eastern French city Strasbourg to "help expand the availability of multilingual data for AI development" in at least 10 of the European Union's 24 languages, including Estonian and Greek.

The work will include digitizing books and recording hundreds of hours of audio.

"This isn't about creating data for Microsoft to own. It is about creating data for the public to be able to use," Smith said, adding that the information would be shared on an open-source basis.

The US-based company has in recent months striven to position itself as especially compatible with a gathering political push for European technological sovereignty.

Leaders in the bloc have grown increasingly nervous at their dependency on US tech firms and infrastructure since Donald Trump's reelection to the White House.

In June, Microsoft said it was stepping up cooperation with European governments on cybersecurity and announced new "data sovereignty" measures for its data centers on the continent.

Smith said that Monday's announcement was just the latest evidence of the company's commitment to Europe.

Most leading AI firms are American or Chinese, although Europe has some standouts like France's Mistral or Franco-American platform Hugging Face.

Away from Microsoft, some European initiatives such as TildeLM are pushing to develop local-language AI models.

The Windows and Office developer also said Monday that it was working on a digital recreation of Paris' Notre-Dame cathedral that it plans to gift to the French state, as well as digitizing items from the country's BNF national library and Decorative Arts Museum.