- iPhone Prices in China Drop Ahead of 618 Shopping Holiday - Considering the Staggered Release Rumor for iPhone 18 - TSMC Investing Another $20B in AZ Plants - Federighi to Testify in xAI Suit Against Apple and OpenAI - Apple and Epic Enter Months-Long Back and Forth on Outside Commissions - Sponsored by NordLayer: Get an exclusive offer - up to 22% off NordLayer yearly plans plus 10% on top with coupon code: macosken-10-NORDLAYER at nordlayer.com/macosken - Catch Ken on Mastodon - @macosken@mastodon.social - Send Ken an email: info@macosken.com - Chat with us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. Support the show at Patreon.com/macosken

iPhone News, Chip Supply, and Court Cases - MOSK: 05.18.2026

Mac OS Ken

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Mac OS Ken

## Transcript

[SPEAKER_A] This is Mac OS Ken. News around iPhone, TSMC sends more money Arizona's way, and word on a couple of court cases. It is Monday, the 18th of May, 2026. I'm Ken Ray, and this is news from Mac OS Ken, brought to you by yours truly and sponsored by NordLayer. A toggle-ready network security platform built for today's business. Get savings on top of savings with offer code macOSKen-10-NordLayer at nordlayer.com/macosken. This show is also supported by people like you, patrons through Patreon. Find out more and add your support at patreon.com/macosken. Macosken. Apple's doing that thing it does this time of year, just about every year, in China. MacRumors says the Cupertino company has cut prices on some iPhones in the Middle Kingdom ahead of this year's 618 shopping holiday. Citing a piece from the Global Times, MacRumors says both JD.com and Tmall have dropped prices for the iPhone 17 line. According to the report, prices on the iPhone 17 Pro series are down 1,000 yuan, a discount of roughly $138 US. That brings them to a temporary starting price of 6,999 yuan, roughly $968. Meanwhile, iPhone 17 seems to bring a one-two savings combo. MacRumors says some configurations are now available for 4,499 yuan, around $622, including discounts, bringing it well under the 6,000 yuan threshold for China's national trade-in subsidy. That subsidy is said by the site to knock an additional 15% off of qualifying devices, with that discount capped at 500 yuan. One could easily see those discounts adding to an already stellar year for Apple in China. Cupertino's own reported just under $31 billion in revenue in Greater China for the March quarter, That was up 28% versus the same quarter a year earlier, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. The tech side of the consumer-focused blog WCCF had a piece on iPhone last week that was both interesting and kind of confounding. They've got a Weibo tipster putting iPhone 17 activations at around 30 million units in China. Who's the tipster? I do not know. But the way WCCF sees it, the success of iPhone 17 is reason enough why Apple has delayed the iPhone 18. I think we have to go ahead and call hogwash on that. I want to say we started hearing rumors of Apple splitting the iPhone 18 release long before we knew how successful iPhone 17 was going to be. I mean, it stood to be as successful as any other iPhone, but the runaway success, either despite or because of component issues, was not a thing that was happening when we first heard of iPhone 18's split release. If you've lost track of that, general thinking has Apple releasing iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the anticipated iPhone foldable this fall. That'll be followed in the spring by the entry-level iPhone 18 line, which I assume includes iPhone 18e. I'm also not sure where that leaves an iPhone Air update, assuming Apple hasn't left off an iPhone Air update. So the tech site says the success of the iPh...

iPhone News, Chip Supply, and Court Cases - MOSK: 05.18.2026

Transcript

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iPhone News, Chip Supply, and Court Cases - MOSK: 05.18.2026

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.