Apple raised iPad and MacBook prices on Thursday, saying it could no longer shield customers from soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry’s datacenter buildout.
The move does not affect Apple’s main cash cow, the iPhone. But it would take starting price of the Neo - its lowest priced laptop aimed at winning marketshare from affordable Windows and Chromebook laptops - from $599 to $699 months after launch.
The increase shows even the world’s most valuable consumer electronics company with supply chain relationships that are the envy of the industry is not immune to a memory price surge that has dulled the outlook for smartphone and PC sales.
Memory makers such as Micron have in recent months prioritized orders from AI chipmakers like Nvidia, helping them earn record profit but leaving little supply for electronics makers that have been forced to increase prices.
“We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple said in a statement. “We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.”
Apple hiked the price of MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes of storage rose to $1,299 from $1,099, while the MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage rose to $1,999 from $1,699, according to updated prices on its website. The iPad Air with 128 gigabytes of storage rose from $599 to $749, among other changes.
Apple also raised prices for both versions of its HomePod smart speaker and Apple TV set-top box. Shares of the company fell nearly 5%, while rival Dell was down more than 8%.
Rival device makers may have to raise prices even more sharply than Apple, whose deep supplier ties have cushioned it from the full hit, several analysts said.
“The memory environment is tough and remains structurally tough for the foreseeable future,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO of technology consulting firm Creative Strategies.
Apple said in April existing inventories had helped it keep its gross margins above Wall Street expectations but that rising memory costs would start to catch up by the end of this month, with profitability expected to fall slightly.
“We expect significantly higher memory costs,” CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts in late April.
“Where we don’t give color beyond June, I can tell you that beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business,” Cook had said.
MEMORY SURGE ADDS PRESSURE ON ELECTRONICS MAKERS
Apple has not disclosed what steps besides price hike it has taken to address rising memory costs. “We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions,” the company said on Thursday.
Analysts expect Apple to increase iPhone prices in the coming months and said the latest hike could prompt some potential buyers to advance their purchase decisions.
“The iPhone isn’t spared, its hike is coming,” said Nabila Popal, a senior research director at IDC. “It was incredibly strategic for Apple to make the price hike announcements prior to the iPhone fall launch, so the headlines at launch is not the price hikes but the value the new phones bring.”
Prices of dynamic random access memory, used in virtually all modern tech gadgets, rose as much as 98% in the first quarter of 2026 and is set to jump by another 58% to 63% in the current quarter, according to industry tracker TrendForce.
That surge, dubbed by some experts as “RAMageddon”, has been driven by a boom in AI data center construction, with companies like Nvidia signing long-term deals with memory makers who are racing to increase capacity.
Micron said on Wednesday it has locked in $22 billion in such long-term commitments from customers looking to secure their memory supplies.
The rising costs are expected to weigh heavily on device sales this year, with research firm IDC estimating that the smartphone market would see its biggest-ever annual decline of nearly 14% this year while the PC market will fall 11.3%.
Among the notable bright spots has been the MacBook Neo launched in March, which helped power Apple’s strong sales forecast for the June quarter and has even led some industry watchers to revise their estimates for PC sales.
With its increased price, it has now lost a $100 advantage over the $699 XPS 13 laptop that Dell unveiled last month especially to take on the Neo, while also making it more expensive than some Chromebooks from Lenovo and Asus.
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
