Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads over memory cost
Apple has raised prices for iPads and MacBooks, saying it can no longer protect customers from rising memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry’s data center structure.
The move does not affect Apple’s main cash cow, the iPhone.
But the starting price for the Neo, the lowest-priced laptop aimed at gaining market share from affordable Windows and Chromebook laptops, will rise from $599 to $699 ($A870 to $A1000) months after launch.
This increase shows that even the world’s most valuable consumer electronics company, which has supply chain relationships that are the envy of the industry, is not immune from the rise in memory prices that is negatively impacting the outlook for smartphone and PC sales.
Memory makers like Micron have helped AI chipmakers like Nvidia make record profits in recent months by prioritizing their orders, leaving little supply for electronics makers who have been forced to raise prices.
“We’ve never seen component prices rise this fast before,” Apple said in a statement.
“So far we’ve protected our customers from these increases, but we’ve now reached a point where we need to start increasing prices on some products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.”
Apple has increased the price of the MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes of storage from $1099 to $1299, and the price of the MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage from $1699 to $1999, according to the prices updated on its website.
The iPad Air with 128 gigabytes of storage has increased from $599 to $749, among other changes.
Apple also increased prices for both versions of its HomePod smart speaker and Apple TV set-top box.
The company’s U.S. shares fell 2.8 percent in early trading Thursday.
Apple said in April that existing inventories helped keep its gross margin above Wall Street expectations, but rising memory costs will begin to catch up by the end of this month and profitability is 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 do not color post-June, I would say we believe memory costs will have an increasing impact on our business after the June quarter,” Cook said. he said.
Apple did not disclose what steps it was taking, other than price increases, to cover rising memory costs.
“We know this is not welcome news and we are working tirelessly to find a solution,” the company said on Thursday.
According to industry tracker TrendForce, prices of dynamic random access memory used in almost all modern technological devices have increased by as much as 98 percent in the first quarter of 2026 and are expected to rise another 58 percent to 63 percent in the current quarter.
Dubbed “RAMageddon” by some experts, the surge was driven by a boom in AI data center construction, with companies like Nvidia signing long-term deals with memory manufacturers racing to expand capacity.
