Apple Raises Prices Amid Global Memory Shortage Triggered by AI Development
Amid a global memory shortage caused by the development of AI, Apple is raising prices on its Mac and iPad lines, as reported by Bloomberg. At the moment there is no increase in iPhone prices, but it is possible that they will arrive later in the year.
Price Increases Across Apple Products
Apple’s newest addition to the MacBook lineup, the MacBook Neo, will now cost $699 instead of $599. The company has also increased the base price of the MacBook Air from $1,099 to $1,299, and the MacBook Pro from $1,699 to $1,999. Meanwhile, the desktop Mac Studio now costs $2,499, up from $1,999.
iPads have similarly experienced a price hike. The Air now costs $749, up from $599, and the Pro now costs $1,199, up from $999. Additionally, the base iPad model with the A16 chip now costs $449 instead of $349, and the iPad Mini with the A17 chip costs $599 instead of $499.
Apple’s smart devices are also seeing increased prices. The standard HomePod has increased from $299 to $349, the HomePod Mini from $99 to $129, and the Apple TV box from $99 to $129.
The company’s Vision Pro headset is now priced at $3,699, up from an already pricey $3,499.
Reasons Behind the Price Hike
“The consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge. The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary increase in demand for memory and storage,” Apple stated to CNBC. “We have never seen the price of a component increase this much and so quickly.”
Apple is working tirelessly to find solutions, acknowledging that this is not good news for consumers. Last week, Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal that price increases for Apple products were “inevitable” due to rising prices for memory and storage components driven by the AI boom. During the company’s earnings conference call in April, Cook suggested that for iPhones, the company faced constraints on the main processing chip rather than memory, indicating that “it could take several months to reach balance between supply and demand” for Mac Studio and Mac Mini.
Industry-Wide Impact and Future Outlook
Apple discontinued the base $599 256GB Mac Mini in May and made the $799 base model with 512GB of storage the base model. The M4 Pro configuration now costs $1,599, down from $1,399.
In March, analyst firm Counterpoint noted that smartphone DRAM prices jumped 50%, and NAND Flash storage prices jumped more than 90% quarter-over-quarter in the first quarter of 2026.
Tarun Pathak, director of research at Counterpoint, highlighted, “We’ve reached a point where it’s impossible to absorb rising memory prices unless you want to run a business at a significant loss. Memory prices have more than quadrupled since the fourth quarter of 2025, and that component alone has eroded the profit margins of most consumer electronics players. Apple has done well to keep prices steady so far, even though it hinted at increases last week.”
“The growing demand for AI infrastructure has fundamentally changed the memory supply chain, meaning that higher BOM costs are now a lasting challenge. We also expect other PC and tablet makers to follow Apple’s lead. They may raise prices on certain products, reduce discounts, or adjust their product lines to focus more on high-end devices,” he added.
As the AI chip crisis hits consumer companies, suppliers like Micron are reaping the benefits, with the company reporting a 4x year-over-year increase in revenue in its most recent results.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
For further details, you can refer to the original report Here.
“`
