Oliver Haslam on December 12, 2019, 10:23 pm

iPhone 12 Redesign And 5G Support Will Not Increase Prices, Says Analyst

Apple is expected to announce as many as four 5G iPhones next fall, although quite what that lineup will look like isn’t exactly clear right now. But supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the inclusion of 5G modems won’t mean that we will see big price increases across the board.

Adding 5G to phones could see iPhones cost more than 4G models to the tune of as much as $100. But Kuo believes that won’t be the case, with Apple offsetting some or all of the cost by improving its manufacturing costs.

In a research note that MacRumors got its hands on, Kuo says that Apple will reduce its non-recurring engineering payments to suppliers of iPhones, in turn reducing the overall cost.

Non-recurring engineering refers to the one-time cost to research, design, develop, and test a new product or component. Kuo believes Apple will shift more of this research and development in house.

While the decrease in that income could leave phone makers at risk of collapse, that isn’t expected to be an issue in 2020 and beyond with Apple rumored to be splitting its release cycle.

2020 is thought to be the first year where Apple will setting into a new cadence that will see less costly iPhones launch in spring and flagship models announced in the fall. That spreading of work throughout the year is thought to be enough to keep phone manufactures out of trouble.