Apple iOS 27 Release Creates A Price Problem For iPhone 15 Owners

No iOS 27 AI Tools Could Make Your iPhone Less Valuable

iOS 27 draws a clear line through Apple’s lineup. Every iPhone that runs iOS 26 gets the update. But Siri AI, the headline feature, requires an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. Base iPhone 15 owners are on the right side of the iOS cut, but the wrong side of the AI divide. They get the update. They don’t get the feature everyone will be talking about this fall.

That distinction could impact how much the non-AI phones are worth, according to new data.

Sarah McConomy, COO of price comparison site SellCell, shared data with me on what happened to resale values when the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X lost software support after iOS 17 launched.

Values fell by an average of 3.4% in the three months following the public release, and 6.6% over six months. Applied to the iPhone 11, which is confirmed to receive iOS 27, owners may have avoided a further drop of around $6 over six months. For iPhone 11 Pro Max owners, that figure is closer to $11.

The drop is real but contained. As McConomy puts it, “the impact on resale values is likely to be measured rather than dramatic.” By the time support ends, most older iPhones have already gone through the vast majority of their depreciation cycle. The decline is gradual rather than severe.

But the iPhone 15 story is different. It’s not about losing support, it’s about being left behind on AI.

The iOS 27 Siri AI Premium Problem

This is where it gets more complicated. “There is currently no historical benchmark for AI-related depreciation,” McConomy told me, “but if consumers begin placing a premium on AI-capable devices, the divide between supported iPhones and fully AI-enabled iPhones could become a more important factor than software support alone.”

That divide runs directly through the iPhone 15 lineup. The base iPhone 15 gets iOS 27, but it doesn’t get Siri AI. The iPhone 15 Pro gets both. If Apple Intelligence becomes a genuine purchasing factor this fall, and Apple’s entire WWDC narrative was built around making that case, the iPhone 15 ends up in an awkward middle position. Updated, but not intelligent.

But that is a big “if”. A CNET survey from September showed that just 11% of U.S. smartphone owners chose to upgrade because of AI features, which was a 7% drop from a similar survey the year before.

With that said, mobile AI have moved on and the new Siri AI is Apple’s first proper foray into serious AI tools with a touch of agentic abilities, such as automatically changing weak passwords for users. Those types of features could be a genuine draw because they’re actually useful, rather than just being a demo of what AI can do.

So What Should iPhone Owners Without iOS 27 AI Tools Do?

That very much depends on whether you care about AI tools, or if you plan to upgrade within the next two years. If you’re eyeing a new iPhone, you have a couple of things working against you. Firstly, there’s the possibility of an iPhone 18 price rise because of the memory crisis. Then there’s the resale depreciation of the iPhone 15 (and below) because it doesn’t support Siri AI. A double whammy on your wallet.

So for upgraders the advice is clear, do it now before the public beta lands. Before the AI-capable framing of the new devices starts pulling secondhand values in one direction.

If you’re one of the few who isn’t influenced by shiny-new-tech FOMO, then sit tight and enjoy your still-working iPhone. Also, Apple extending iOS 27 support to the iPhone 11 is a good omen for your iPhone 15 because it may receive the same stay of execution in 2-3 years, which means it could be useable for another 4-5 years.