The Wall Street Journal
The Journal.
MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2026
6/22/2026 4:20:00 PMShare This Episode
Why iPhones Will Probably Get Even More Expensive
iPhonesがさらに値上がりする可能性が高い理由
• get on the phone with /ɡɛt ɑːn ðə foʊn wɪð/ ～に電話する
• drop a bombshell /drɑːp ə ˈbɑːmʃel/ 衝撃的事実を明かす
• work through details /wɜːrk θruː dɪˈteɪlz/ 詳細を詰める
• hear ~ loud and clear /lɔːd ənd klɪr/ はっきりと理解する
• analogize /əˈnæləˌdʒaɪz/ 例える、比喩する
• analogy /əˈnælədʒi/ 比喩、たとえ
• analogous to /əˈnælədʒəs tuː/ ～に相当する
analogize A to B = AをBに例える
A is analogous to B= AはBに対応する
• at it again /æt ɪt əˈɡɛn/ またやっている、例のあれが再び起きている
• to torture an analogy /tə ˈtɔːrʧər ən əˈnælədʒi/ 無理やり比喩を使うと
• play off each other /pleɪ ɔːf iːʧ ʌðər/ 競争させる、駆け引きする
• next to no profit /nɛkst tuː noʊ ˈprɑːfɪt/ ほとんど利益がない
• devour /dɪˈvaʊər/ むさぼり食う、猛烈に消費する
• dictate terms /ˈdɪkteɪt tɜːrmz/ 条件を支配する
• gargantuan /ɡɑːrˈɡænʧuən/ 巨大な、莫大な
• make money hand over fist /meɪk ˈmʌni hænd oʊvər fɪst/ 莫大な利益を上げる
• boom-bust cycle /buːm bʌst ˈsaɪkəl/ 好況・不況の循環
• spin up /spɪn ʌp/ （システム・工場などを）立ち上げる
• hitch /hɪʧ/ 障害、問題点
• federally approved license /ˈfɛdərəli əˈpruːvd ˈlaɪsəns/ 連邦政府承認ライセンス
• badger /ˈbædʒər/ しつこく圧力をかける
• upselling /ʌpˈselɪŋ/ アップセル（上位モデル・追加機能の販売）
• upend /ʌpˈɛnd/ 根本からひっくり返す
• arc /ɑːrk/ 進行曲線、プロセスの流れ
• insatiable /ɪnˈseɪʃəbəl/ 飽くことを知らない
analogize / analogy / analogous to
- analogize A to B = AをBに例える（動詞・説明行為）
- A is analogous to B = AはBに相当する（状態・関係）
- analogy = 比喩そのもの
※ニュースではほぼ
→ “Let me analogize this…” / “To use an analogy…” が多い
at it again
ニュアンス補足が重要
- 単なる「またやってる」ではなく
→ “例のパターンがまた起きてる（やや皮肉・呆れ）”
play off each other
- 競争させる（価格交渉）
- “A vs Bをぶつける”戦略
※サプライチェーンでは超頻出
next to no profit
- next to no = ほぼ完全にゼロ
dictate terms
- 「条件を支配する」＝交渉力の極点
- “price taker vs price maker” の後者
boom-bust cycle
- boom = 投資過剰
- bust = 供給過剰で崩壊
→ 半導体業界の構造問題そのもの
spin up
- IT由来（クラウド・サーバー）
- “立ち上げる”より
→ 「即席で起動する」感覚
badger
- 単なる依頼ではなく
→ しつこく・執拗に圧をかける
upselling
- 基本価格ではなく
→ 上位構成で利益を取るビジネスモデル
Appleの核心収益構造
upend
- disrupt より強い
→ 構造そのものをひっくり返す
arc
重要比喩
- 直線ではなく
→ 時間の流れ（ストーリー曲線）
insatiable
- “very hungry”では弱い
→ 止まらない欲望・需要
cloud = “空間・システム” “場所”ではなく“環境”
だから：
- in a system（システムの中）
- in a database（データベースの中）
- in the cloud（クラウド環境の中）
全部同じ発想。
make money hand over fist
重要表現。
意味：
→ 急速に大儲けする
イメージ：
手から手へお金が止まらず流れ込む
boom-bust cycle
経済の基本概念。
- boom = 好況
- bust = 不況
→ 半導体業界の典型的構造
get out + message
ここでの get out は「外に出す・公表する」という意味で、物理的というより情報の公開。
つまり：
- get a message out
= メッセージを外に出す（発信する）
類似表現
• get the word out
（情報を広める）
• get information out
（情報を公開する）
• put out a message
（メッセージを出す）
この文のニュアンス
a message he wanted to get out
＝
「彼（ティム・クック）が“ぜひ外に伝えたかった”公式メッセージ」
つまり単なる発言ではなく、
- 戦略的な発信
- 市場や世論に向けたシグナル
というニュアンスが強いです。
この “get out” はニュースではよく：
- political message
- corporate warning
- financial guidance
などと一緒に使われます。
when the new iPhone drops
drop = 発売する（スラング的）
例：
- new album drops
- new product drops
hear X loud and clear
「はっきり理解する」
→ “明確なメッセージとして受け取る”
Artificial intelligence is driving up the cost of the chips inside your iPhone. In an exclusive interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned that price increases are “unavoidable.” WSJ’s Rolfe Winkler breaks down how AI companies’ race for memory and storage has sent chip prices soaring, forcing Apple to choose between shrinking profits and charging customers more. Ryan Knutson hosts.
• memory and storage /ˈmɛməri ənd ˈstɔːrɪdʒ/ メモリとストレージ
• send ~ soaring /sɛnd ˈsɔːrɪŋ/ ～を急騰させる
• force A to B /fɔːrs eɪ tə biː/ AにBを強いる
• shrink profits /ʃrɪŋk ˈprɑːfɪts/ 利益を縮小させる
Ryan Knutson: The other day, our colleague Rolfe Winkler got on the phone with Tim Cook, the outgoing CEO of Apple. Cook had a message he wanted to get out. What was the bombshell that he dropped in your conversation?
Rolfe Winkler: They're going to raise prices. He told me they're going to raise prices. When I asked which devices, when, how much? "We're still working through those details," is what he told me. But look, I would suspect soon and plenty.
Ryan Knutson: When the new iPhone drops in September, one analyst estimates that it could cost an extra $200 or even more.
Speaker 3: The two words no Apple fan wants to hear, price increase.
Ryan Knutson: Since Rolfe broke the news last week, customers have heard Tim Cook's message loud and clear.
Speaker 4: If you're thinking about buying a new Apple product, I would do that right now.
Speaker 5: Although, your next iPhone could cost you a lot more on (inaudible)-
Speaker 6: Apple just announced they are doubling down on keeping people from buying iPhones in the future.
Speaker 7: What? The prices were already pretty raised.
• get on the phone with /ɡɛt ɑːn ðə foʊn wɪð/ ～に電話する
• drop a bombshell /drɑːp ə ˈbɑːmʃel/ 衝撃的事実を明かす
• work through details /wɜːrk θruː dɪˈteɪlz/ 詳細を詰める
• hear ~ loud and clear /lɔːd ənd klɪr/ はっきりと理解する
• double down on /ˈdʌbəl daʊn ɑːn/ さらに強化する、徹底する
• keep from doing /kiːp frəm ˈduːɪŋ/ ～させないようにする
• pretty raised (非標準) /ˈprɪti reɪzd/ かなり高い（口語的・不自然）
Ryan Knutson: Did Tim Cook seem worried about sharing this update?
Rolfe Winkler: He's always a smooth operator. He's always kind of in command and on message. He had a couple key points he wanted to make and he made those points. Price increase is unavoidable.
Ryan Knutson: How big of a deal is it for Apple to do something like this?
Rolfe Winkler: They raise prices all the time sort of in subtle ways, but I think the reason they're doing this interview is because it's not going to be subtle this time.
Ryan Knutson: Ouch.
Rolfe Winkler: Yeah. Ouch, indeed.
Ryan Knutson: Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Monday, June 22nd. Coming up on the show, why Apple products are about to get even more expensive.
What is the thing inside the iPhone that's causing it to get so much more expensive?
Rolfe Winkler: Two components, memory and storage. So if you want to analogize this to-
Ryan Knutson: I love a good analogy. Yes, please.
Rolfe Winkler: Did I use that verb correctly?
Ryan Knutson: Analogize? Sure. Why not? Rolfe's analogy is that of an old office, like one from the 1960s.
Rolfe Winkler: In that office, there was no computer. There was a desk and there was a filing cabinet behind it. The desk space is analogous to memory on your phone, it's all of the papers you need right now to complete whatever task you're working on, right?
Ryan Knutson: Got it.
Rolfe Winkler: The DRAM or RAM is the memory of say 8 gigabytes or 12 gigabytes. That's the size of the desk and it's what the phone needs to run the apps you're using right now. The filing cabinet behind you is storage for everything else. So when you buy an iPhone, if they're marketing 256 gigabytes to you, that's the filing cabinet, that's the storage, that's the photos and the video locker. Desks are more expensive than filing cabinets and the cost of both of those quadrupled.
• analogize /əˈnæləˌdʒaɪz/ 例える、比喩する
• analogy /əˈnælədʒi/ 比喩、たとえ
• analogous to /əˈnælədʒəs tuː/ ～に相当する
• DRAM /ˌdiːˈrɑːm/ 動的メモリ（メインメモリの一種）
• RAM /ræm/ メモリ（作業用領域）
• storage locker /ˈstɔːrɪdʒ ˈlɑːkər/ 保管庫
• quadruple /kwɑːˈdruːpəl/ 4倍になる
Ryan Knutson: For last year's iPhone 17 Pro, it cost Apple about 50 bucks to buy those desks and filing cabinets, or memory and storage chips. But according to the research from TechInsights, for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro, the chips will cost Apple four times that. That's a huge increase.
Rolfe Winkler: Huge increase. It's spectacular.
Ryan Knutson: So what's causing this price increase in chips?
Rolfe Winkler: One force, AI.
Ryan Knutson: At it again, AI. AI companies use basically the same kind of chips that Apple does to do things like train and run large language models and coding agents. And those companies are asking for a lot of chips to build out their AI dreams.
Rolfe Winkler: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, plus Nvidia, these guys were buying, to torture analogy, desks and filing cabinets, memory and storage. They're buying huge amounts to go into those AI servers. They put it in the AI servers so that the AI can work its magic.
Ryan Knutson: Before these AI companies came onto the scene, Apple was one of the biggest buyers of these kinds of chips and had lots of influence over the chip factories.
Rolfe Winkler: Right now there's three main makers of memory chips, two South Korean, one American. Apple is the kind of company that in the past had so much leverage over these three players playing them off each other, it was leaving them next to no profit at all. They were so powerful they bought so much.
• at it again /æt ɪt əˈɡɛn/ またやっている、例のあれが再び起きている
• to torture an analogy /tə ˈtɔːrʧər ən əˈnælədʒi/ 無理やり比喩を使うと
• play off each other /pleɪ ɔːf iːʧ ʌðər/ 競争させる、駆け引きする
• next to no profit /nɛkst tuː noʊ ˈprɑːfɪt/ ほとんど利益がない
Ryan Knutson: But AI companies who were locked in an arms race to build the best chatbots and AI tools have been devouring these chips and they're willing to pay the chip makers a lot more money.
Rolfe Winkler: Now suddenly AI's in there, Apple has to wait in line. What AI has hath brought is amazing. It's so big that even a company as large as Apple is forced to wait in line for commodity components that forever it was able to dictate terms for. That's what AI has done. These companies, whether it's Nvidia or the hyperscalers that are deploying Nvidia chips, are spending such gargantuan sums of money into the hundreds of billions, it will be trillions. They're spending so much money and they're just going fast, that they're just gobbling up all of the supply of these key components that's in everything we as consumers buy.
• be locked in an arms race /bi lɑːkt ɪn ən ɑːrmz reɪs/ 競争状態にある
• devour /dɪˈvaʊər/ むさぼり食う、猛烈に消費する
• dictate terms /ˈdɪkteɪt tɜːrmz/ 条件を支配する
• gargantuan /ɡɑːrˈɡænʧuən/ 巨大な、莫大な
• gobble up /ˈɡɑːbəl ʌp/ むさぼるように消費する
Ryan Knutson: Did Tim Cook say anything about all this new competition for these chips?
Rolfe Winkler: He said in his 40 years in the electronic supply chain, he's never seen anything like this. He called it 100 year flood.
Ryan Knutson: For now, the companies that make memory chips aren't significantly increasing their supply. Instead, they're just raising prices through the roof and making money hand over fist. To give you a sense of just how much more powerful they've become, the stock prices for some of these memory chip makers have risen more than 800% just in the past year.
Rolfe Winkler: And they're not building capacity super fast because this is a boom-bust cycle. And if they build a lot of capacity for memory or desk space, the price of desks is going to collapse and they'll be in trouble having built these massive factories so they're going slowly.
• raise prices through the roof /reɪz ˈpraɪsɪz θruː ðə ruːf/ 価格を急騰させる
• make money hand over fist /meɪk ˈmʌni hænd oʊvər fɪst/ 莫大な利益を上げる
• boom-bust cycle /buːm bʌst ˈsaɪkəl/ 好況・不況の循環
Ryan Knutson: According to chip makers, it would take a few years to build new factories and get production up and running.
Rolfe Winkler: You can't just spin up a fab, a chip fab. That's not how memory and storage chips works. Bottom line is it takes years.
Ryan Knutson: There are other memory chip factories that over time could potentially help fill Apple's orders. The hitch is they're in China and some US policymakers don't want to give China a leg up.
Rolfe Winkler: The American companies face restrictions working with those companies, sharing technology so that they can use those chips in their own products for national security reasons. These are really important components and policymakers in the US don't want China to have open access to this market.
• spin up /spɪn ʌp/ （システム・工場などを）立ち上げる
• fab (fabrication plant) /fæb/ 半導体製造工場
• bottom line /ˈbɑːtəm laɪn/ 結論、要点
• fill orders /fɪl ˈɔːrdərz/ 受注に対応する
• hitch /hɪʧ/ 障害、問題点
• give A a leg up /ɡɪv eɪ ə lɛɡ ʌp/ Aに有利な状況を与える
Ryan Knutson: Due to national security rules, American companies would likely need to get federally approved licenses to work with Chinese factories.
Rolfe Winkler: I asked Tim Cook about China. Do they want that supply in China? Do they want restrictions loosened? And he said, "All options need to be on the table. We need to look at all supply." So yeah, you can imagine that behind the scenes that's what they're asking policymakers.
Ryan Knutson: I know that Cook and President Trump have a close relationship. So has Cook reached out to Trump about this?
Rolfe Winkler: Great question. I asked him, he said, "You know what? I don't want to talk about private conversations." That is not a no. I don't know if he's talking to Trump directly. But, probably, they do speak. And you can imagine a headline hits that Apple is raising the price of iPhones and that sounds like inflation. It's not something that Trump wants. So, who knows? Maybe he tries to badger the memory guys into holding back more supply for consumer technologies.
• federally approved license /ˈfɛdərəli əˈpruːvd ˈlaɪsəns/ 連邦政府承認ライセンス
• badger /ˈbædʒər/ しつこく圧力をかける
• hold back supply /hoʊld bæk səˈplaɪ/ 供給を抑える
Ryan Knutson: But to be clear, there is at least one other option. Is there any way that Apple could just absorb this and lower their profits a bit so it doesn't hurt consumers so bad?
Rolfe Winkler: Absolutely. I mean, one of the greatest profit machines in the history of American business is how much Apple makes upselling storage to you.
• upselling /ʌpˈselɪŋ/ アップセル（上位モデル・追加機能の販売）
• storage /ˈstɔːrɪdʒ/ ストレージ（容量）
Ryan Knutson: We'll be right back.
Why do we need so much storage? I was just looking this up and I saw that the first iPhone that came out in 2007 only had four gigabytes of storage and now new models start with 256 gigabytes of storage. I mean, it's a huge increase in over 20 years.
Rolfe Winkler: The cameras are getting bigger, so the files get bigger, so the storage needs to get bigger. Your photos keep getting bigger, Ryan, and how many of them do you go back and throw away?
Ryan Knutson: Hardly any.
Rolfe Winkler: Hardly any. So you end up carrying them all with you. Now, Apple lets you dump a lot of that into iCloud. But, guess what? You pay for that storage too. We keep growing this filing cabinet, whether it's in our hand or it's in the cloud, keeps getting bigger.
Ryan Knutson: The irony of these factories forcing Apple to pay more for storage is that Apple has been asking iPhone customers to do that for years.
Rolfe Winkler: Apple has been upselling storage at huge rates since the iPod. You wanted to carry more music in your pocket? We could sell you more storage. We're going to make a large margin on that. Just as example, when you buy a base level iPhone 17, you get 256 gigs of storage. If you want to go to the next level up, 512 gigs, that costs you an extra $200. How much do you think Apple pays for those extra 256 gigabytes as of last year anyway?
Ryan Knutson: I don't know, probably like 20 bucks or something like that.
Rolfe Winkler: Good guess, $15. This is according to TechInsights. That's a 90% profit margin on that upsell.
Ryan Knutson: And then also, I mean, once your phone is full, then also you're paying 10 bucks a month or whatever it is for iClouds.
Rolfe Winkler: Yep. It's an incredible business model.
Ryan Knutson: One way that the memory shortage could actually be good for Apple is that this problem is also affecting its competitors and Apple's competitors might have an even tougher time dealing with it.
Rolfe Winkler: There are a ton of low and mid-range Android smartphone makers who can't make phones economically because there's not enough profit margin in a device that costs $300 to absorb the extra cost of these components. So those guys are getting hammered. In many cases, they're having to raise their price a lot or just not make these phones. And so Apple, which actually went on offense, it offered the 17e, that's their base level model iPhone at a cheaper price. All of a sudden the gap between those low end Android phones that have had to jump in price and the lowest level iPhone, that gap is smaller. All of a sudden many of those Android buyers might say, wait a minute, this gap is smaller. Maybe I should just go ahead and upgrade to the iPhone. I've been buying this cheap Android phone because it's cheap. It's not cheap anymore. So what's happening is Apple's gaining market share.
Ryan Knutson: So this is like a problem for Apple, but it might hurt its competitors even more.
Rolfe Winkler: Correct.
Ryan Knutson: These chip shortages and rising memory costs aren't just impacting Apple or other phone providers. Rolfe says it's a problem that's coming for basically all consumer technology products.
Rolfe Winkler: This affects every company because there's no escaping these higher costs. Xboxs will go up. The Nintendo Switch is going up. Microsoft Surface price just is now 1,599. Two years ago, it was 999. There's a lot of memory and storage in cars. Anything that has onboard computers, which is cars too, they need especially memory. And so that's going to be a meaningful hit to the cost structures of all these companies and they're going to pass that on to you.
Ryan Knutson: One of the things that's so crazy about all this, is that historically prices for these kinds of chips have only gone down. Technology is supposed to get cheaper over time, not more expensive.
Rolfe Winkler: Chips, since they were invented, every year they get faster and cheaper, basically. It's Moore's Law. It's famous. It's what's powered all of these amazing technical revolutions to get us from a Macintosh computer in the '80s that could do a fraction of what a phone can do now. And that's why consumer electronics are deflationary. The TV that cost you $1,000 20 years ago was not nearly as cool as the TV that cost you $1,000 today, that's because all these technologies get better and cheaper over time. But all of a sudden that magic formula has reversed. For these two components, the price of those chips is not going down anymore, it's spiked and it's not coming back soon.
• Moore’s Law /mʊrz lɔː/ ムーアの法則
• fraction of /ˈfrækʃən əv/ ごく一部
• deflationary /ˌdiːˈfleɪʃəˌnɛri/ デフレ的な→ 価格が下がる構造
Ryan Knutson: What it all comes down to is AI demand is upending how consumer technology is supposed to work and making it so that customers are left paying more for the same thing. So, Tim Cook described this as like 100 year flood, but do you know where we are on the arc of that flood? Are the waters just starting to rise or are we at the point where they're rushing over us?
Rolfe Winkler: They're still rising because the price of these components is still going up and it's going to go up into 2027 and AI demand is insatiable. It's insane.
Ryan Knutson: I guess we just need to start taking fewer photos and videos.
Rolfe Winkler: Dude, every time you get on a plane, if you're not watching your kids, use those two hours to just go through photos and all that stuff and delete. Delete, delete, delete.
• upend /ʌpˈɛnd/ 根本からひっくり返す
• arc /ɑːrk/ 進行曲線、プロセスの流れ
• insatiable /ɪnˈseɪʃəbəl/ 飽くことを知らない
Ryan Knutson: That's all for today, Monday, June 22nd. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Robbie Weeland. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.
What’s News
TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2026
6/23/2026 5:19:00 PMShare This Episode
The Housing Market Slumped This Spring. Where Does It Go From Here?
住宅市場はこの春に低迷。今後どうなるのか？
a blip /ə blɪp/ 一時的な小さな変動
• detergent pod /dɪˈtɝːʤənt pɑːd/ 洗濯洗剤ポッド
• inherently volatile /ɪnˈhɪrəntli ˈvɑːlətl/ 本質的に値動きが激しい
• vis-à-vis /ˌviːzəˈviː/ ～と比較して、～に照らして
advertising revenue stream /ˈædvərtaɪzɪŋ ˈrɛvənuː striːm/ 広告収益源
• depressed levels /dɪˈprɛst ˈlɛvəlz/ 低水準、低迷した状態
• dash hopes of /dæʃ hoʊps əv/ ～への期待を打ち砕く
• bode well for /boʊd wɛl fɔːr/ ～にとって良い前兆となる
• violate someone's beliefs /ˈvaɪəˌleɪt ˈsʌmwʌnz bɪˈliːfs/ 信念を侵害する
• long-lead item /lɔːŋ liːd ˈaɪtəm/ 長納期品
• disrupt /dɪsˈrʌpt/ 既存市場を変革する、破壊的変化を起こす
• concoction /kənˈkɑːkʃən/ 混合物、調合品（比喩的に新製品）
• tub /tʌb/ 容器、ケース
• get down with /ɡɛt daʊn wɪð/ ～を気に入る、～に賛成する、～を楽しむ
• pod /pɑːd/ 洗剤ポッド（カプセル型洗剤）
• hot take /hɑːt teɪk/ 持論、挑発的な意見、独自の見解