TOKYO - Apple has raised prices for iPhones sold in Japan, with the top-end iPhone 17 Pro Max now costing more than 210,000 yen, as the prolonged weakness of the yen increases the local cost of products priced and managed in US dollars.
The US technology company increased its Japanese iPhone prices on July 17 while leaving prices unchanged in the United States, indicating that the revision was aimed primarily at adjusting for exchange-rate movements rather than reflecting a global increase in the underlying price of the devices.
The latest iPhone 17 rose by 13,000 yen, or about 10%, while the price of the flagship iPhone 17 Pro Max increased by 20,000 yen.
The yen has recently traded at around 160 to 162 against the dollar, close to its weakest levels in decades. A weaker yen reduces the dollar value of Apple’s sales in Japan when the revenue is converted for financial reporting and raises the local-currency cost of imported devices and components. Japan spent 11.7 trillion yen on currency-market intervention in May in an effort to support the yen, but the currency later weakened again.
Apple has long treated foreign-exchange movements as an important factor in setting prices outside the United States. The company has said in regulatory filings that weakening foreign currencies generally leads it to raise international prices because it reduces the dollar value of overseas sales and earnings. Apple also uses financial instruments to hedge some foreign-exchange exposure, typically for periods of up to 12 months, but such measures cannot permanently shield the company from an extended currency decline.
Rather than adjusting prices continuously with daily exchange-rate fluctuations, Apple generally sets country-specific retail prices and revises them periodically when currency movements, taxes or other costs create a significant gap between markets. Its pricing systems for digital products also take account of exchange rates, local taxes and customary price points in each country or region.
The July increase follows a worldwide price revision in June for products including MacBook laptop computers and iPad tablets. Apple attributed those increases partly to semiconductor shortages and other rising supply costs, while leaving iPhone prices unchanged at the time.
Semiconductors are among the most costly and strategically important components in Apple products, including the main processors, memory chips, display controllers, wireless communication chips and power-management devices. Supply constraints can raise procurement and manufacturing expenses, particularly when demand is strong for advanced chips also used in artificial intelligence servers and other high-performance computing equipment.
Apple designs the main processors used in its iPhones, Macs and iPads but relies on outside manufacturers and a global network of suppliers to produce chips and assemble finished products. Shortages or higher prices at any stage of that network can affect production costs even when Apple succeeds in maintaining product availability.
The combination of semiconductor-related expenses and the weak yen creates greater pressure on prices in Japan than in the United States. While the earlier Mac and iPad increases were implemented worldwide, the latest iPhone revision was limited to Japan, reinforcing the view that currency conditions were the main reason for the July 17 adjustment.
Source: TBS
