Tech commentator predicts the new iPhone could cost up to $2000

Start saving up if you have your heart set on an OLED iPhone 8.

Apple's new iPhone could cost up to $2000, if predictions by a tech commentator are to be believed.

Rumours and speculation about the dimensions and features of the highly anticipated iPhone 8 have been circulating for the past few months.

But the latest prediction by writer and podcaster target="_blank">John Gruber has caused a stir.

He predicted the new iPhones would cost between US$1200 ($1650) and $1400, responding to rumours the price point could be $1500.

The iPhone 7 starts at $1200 in New Zealand.

Gruber is known to be close with Apple marketing senior vice president Phil Schiller, but he says he has no inside Apple information on the pricing.

Gruber says Apple would be able to take more risks and include a wider variety of features in the new iPhone if its price-point reduces demand.

An OLED screen has been a strongly rumoured feature for the new device.

"It sounds to me like the OLED iPhone is a phone Apple can't make 40 million of per quarter, at least not today. And if that's true, that means it should be more expensive. Not should in any moral sense, but simply because that's how the principle of supply and demand works.

"When supply is constrained and demand is high, prices go higher. The higher prices alleviate demand."

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested Apple will be hit by severe supply shortages when the iPhone 8 is revealed, because of production difficulties.

According to a research note from KeyBanc Capital Markets analysts Andy Hargreaves, John Vinh and Josh Beck, Apple is struggling to get its Touch ID feature to work with the iPhone 8's edgeless OLED display.

"Apple continues to struggle with the workaround for the fingerprint sensor," Hargreaves said in the note, which was obtained by Barron's.

"This increases the potential that the new OLED iPhone could be delayed, or ship without a fingerprint sensor, either of which could increase risk to unit sales and mix for the cycle."

Apple is expected to host a media event in September where the new iPhone and other devices will be revealed.