Apple's iPhone 18 Pro line hits stores with a $100 price bump amid memory crunch, AI pressure

Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max hit the market on Friday, marking the first launch under CEO John Ternus. It's also the company's first new iPhone to go on sale amid the AI-driven global memory and storage shortage.

Consumers will have to pony up an extra $100 for this year's iPhone Pros thanks to the memory crunch versus the iPhone 17 Pros. The base iPhone 18 Pro now costs $1,199, while the base iPhone 18 Pro Max costs $1,299.

The foldable iPhone Duo isn't due out Oct. 23 and will cost you $1,999.

Despite the hype around the Duo, the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are getting plenty of attention from consumers.

Try ordering an iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max today, and you'll have to wait 3 weeks before it's in your mailbox.

This year, Apple decided to break up its iPhone 18 lineup. Rather than launching the base iPhone 18 alongside the Pros, the company is expected to launch the base iPhone 18s early next year alongside the iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2.

Deepwater Asset Management managing Partner Gene Munster wrote in a note on Friday that the move to a dual-cycle launch seems to be helping goose early sales.

"Our tracking shows Pro model pre-order lead times are about 15% longer than a year ago on launch day," he wrote. "Since Duo will cannibalize some Pro demand, the higher lead times suggest that some would-be iPhone 18 buyers are opting for Pro models, offsetting much of the cannibalization."

The iPhone 18 Pros and Duo launch with the company's improved Apple Intelligence platform and AI-powered Siri AI, though that is still in beta. The software is a major step for the company as it looks to rewrite the narrative that it's fallen behind in the consumer AI race.

So far, Siri AI has proven to be rather helpful. I've used it to ask questions about messages and emails friends have sent me and more often than not it's been able to grab the information I'm looking for without much fuss. But because it's a beta, there are still some hiccups here and there.

How consumers react to the improved AI assistant will go a long way in determining whether Apple is on the right track in its AI efforts.

Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley .