Everyone knows phones keep getting more expensive. We checked our own nine years of Malaysian launch coverage against Apple's US prices and the ringgit, and for the iPhone that stopped being true here in 2023.
The top iPhone costs RM500 less than it did two years ago. The cheapest one costs RM400 less and comes with twice the storage. The interesting part is what moved alongside it.
Table of Contents
The like-for-like numbers
Storage is where price comparisons usually go wrong, so this table sets it out. Apple doubled the entry storage on the base and Pro models in 2025. The Pro Max started at 256GB in both years, which is why it is the cleanest comparison of the three.
| Model | 2023 launch | Storage | 2025 launch | Storage | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone (base) | RM4,399 | 128GB | RM3,999 | 256GB | RM400 cheaper, double the storage |
| iPhone Pro | RM5,499 | 128GB | RM5,499 | 256GB | Same price, double the storage |
| iPhone Pro Max | RM6,499 | 256GB | RM5,999 | 256GB | RM500 cheaper, like for like |
The Pro Max is the cleanest comparison because the storage is identical in both years. Same phone tier, same 256GB, RM500 less.
The dollar price never moved
Here is the part that explains everything. In the United States the iPhone Pro Max cost 1,199 dollars in 2023 and it costs 1,199 dollars now. Not a cent of movement, in Apple's own announcements both years.
So whatever moved the Malaysian price, it was not a change in what Apple charges in dollars. Over the same period one other thing moved a great deal, and it is worth putting the two side by side.
The currency moved further than the price did
Using the official monthly averages from Bank Negara, the ringgit went from RM4.6716 to the US dollar in September 2023 to RM4.2162 in September 2025. That is a 9.7 per cent strengthening between the two launches.
Apply that shift to the 2023 price as a simple counterfactual and RM6,499 becomes RM5,865, a difference of RM633.54. That is not a claim about how Apple sets prices. It is what the exchange rate alone would have done to the same number, and it is larger than the RM500 that actually came off.
The phone actually launched at RM5,999.
The gap between that and the RM5,999 Apple actually charged is RM133.54. We are not claiming that is margin. A retail price in Malaysia carries tax, hedging, distribution and Apple's own regional pricing policy, and none of that is visible from the outside. What the numbers do show is the size and direction of the move: the currency shifted by more than the price did.
What this means if you are buying
The implication worth sitting with is that the ringgit price of an iPhone can move even when its dollar price does not. The ringgit has kept strengthening since that 2025 launch. Bank Negara's published middle rate in late August 2026 was around RM4.03, stronger again than the RM4.2162 September 2025 average used above.
Whether that shows up in the next launch price is not something two observations can tell you, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. It is worth watching rather than predicting.
It also reframes the usual advice about waiting for a discount. The iPhone 16 now sells for RM3,499 on Apple Malaysia, well under its launch price, so last year's model still falls the traditional way. What is different is that between 2023 and 2025 the launch prices did not climb either. We have not checked 2024, so this is two launches compared, not a full trend.
How we did this, and what it does not show
The 2023 Malaysian prices come from our own launch reporting at the time, which is the advantage of having covered this market since 2017. Apple no longer publishes 2023 Malaysian pricing, so that figure rests on our contemporaneous record; the storage tiers behind it are confirmed by Apple's own 2023 newsroom release. The 2025 and current prices were read from Apple Malaysia directly. The US prices are from Apple's own newsroom releases. The exchange rates are the official Bank Negara monthly averages published through data.gov.my.
Two honest limits. Launch prices are not street prices, and trade-ins, bank rebates and carrier bundles all move what people actually pay. And this is the iPhone only: it says nothing about Android, where the pressure on memory prices is real and pushing the other way.
On causation, plainly. We can show three things: the dollar price held, the Malaysian price fell, and the ringgit strengthened by more than the price did. We cannot see inside Apple's pricing, which also carries tax, hedging, distribution and regional policy, so we are not claiming the currency caused the cut. We are showing both numbers and their sizes.
On our 2023 figures. Apple no longer publishes historical Malaysian pricing, so those ringgit prices rest on our own launch reporting from the time. The storage tiers behind them are confirmed by Apple's 2023 newsroom release.
