Tech giant Apple has raised prices on several MacBook and iPad models, its first formal step to pass on soaring memory and storage costs after CEO Tim Cook warned the increases had become unavoidable.
The entry-level MacBook Neo rose from USD 599 to USD 699, while the MacBook Air with 512GB storage climbed from USD 1,099 to USD 1,299. The MacBook Pro with 1TB storage jumped USD 300, from USD 1,699 to USD 1,999.
On the iPad side, the 128GB iPad Air rose from USD 599 to USD 749, and the 256GB Wi-Fi iPad Pro increased from USD 999 to USD 1,199. Apple also raised prices on its HomePod and Apple TV. iPhone and AirPods prices remained unchanged.
Apple’s online store briefly went offline early Thursday (25th June) before returning with the updated prices.
“We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly. We have reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products,” the company said in a statement.
Cook had flagged the move a week earlier, telling the Wall Street Journal that price rises were “unavoidable” while describing the situation as “a hundred-year flood” unlike anything he had witnessed in more than 40 years in the industry.
The price rises stem from a global memory shortage, dubbed “RAMageddon,” as AI data center construction diverts chip supplies away from consumer electronics. Memory and storage prices have quadrupled over the past three quarters, according to Counterpoint Research, while DRAM prices rose as much as 98% in Q1 2026 alone, according to TrendForce, with a further 58%-63% increase expected this quarter.
In April this year, Apple informed its investors that the tech giant’s existing inventories had helped it keep its gross margins above Wall Street expectations but that rising memory costs would start to catch up in the coming months, with profitability expected to fall slightly.
“We expect significantly higher memory costs. 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 remarked back then.
Microsoft too has taken a similar action by announcing the hike in the price of the 512 GB and 1 TB models of its Xbox gaming console by USD 100 and USD 150, respectively.
“We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x, and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles,” Microsoft said in a statement.
Trevor Long, a consumer tech analyst and commentator, while interacting with Al Jazeera, warned that the price increases may end up affecting Apple’s overall product sales.
“Some products, like their newest product, the MacBook Neo, while excellent as products, were also outstanding because of price. This hits that hard. They are still a decent deal but push closer to other competitive product prices as well. The key thing will be the next iPhone and how close they can price it to the last one. I’d expect a $50-150 price rise across the range, depending on models,” Long remarked, while predicting the coming years to be the “tough ones” for the tech players due to the chip price rise.
Chipmaker Micron has been a major beneficiary, recently reporting quadrupled revenue and a gross margin surge to 84.9%, surpassing Nvidia and Meta. The firm has already secured USD 22 billion in long-term supply commitments.
Analysts expect the squeeze to dent device sales broadly, with IDC projecting an 11.3% decline in PC sales and a near 14% drop in smartphone shipments in 2026.
“The iPhone isn’t spared; its hike is coming. It was incredibly strategic for Apple to make the price hike announcements prior to the iPhone fall launch, so the headlines at launch are not the price hikes but the value the new phones bring,” said Nabila Popal, a senior research director at IDC.
Counterpoint’s Tarun Pathak estimates the higher component costs could add roughly USD 200 to the cost of an iPhone, with further Apple price rises of USD 150-USD 200 likely across its range.
As per the IDC, the fallouts of the chip price rise will weigh heavily on the smartphone market, as the latter will see its biggest-ever annual decline of nearly 14% in 2026, while the PC market is estimated to fall by 11.3%.
While Apple’s March launch of the MacBook Neo helped the tech giant’s strong sales forecast for the June quarter, the advantage has been nullified with the product’s increased price. It has now lost a USD 100 advantage over the USD 699 XPS 13 laptop that Dell unveiled in May, especially to take on the Neo. MacBook Neo will also become more expensive than some Chromebooks from Lenovo and Asus.