Apple enthusiasts are going to pay more for their new devices. The price has been stable for the company, but competitors like OnePlus and Nothing have raised prices on their current products.
Apple's CEO Tim Cook already says price increases are coming. If the cost of memory and storage in computers goes up, he says, so will the company.
Cook said in the Wall Street Journal interview that it is no longer possible to avoid raising prices. "Unfortunately, price increases are inevitable. We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."
It's the lack of memory and storage chips core components of smartphones, tablets, and laptops in fact this is the primary reason for this scarcity of memory and storage chips. As companies aim to build more advanced AI systems, data centers, and other technologies in the future, they are buying up these chips in large quantities and prices are being driven up significantly.
Cook mentioned that Apple is under pressure from suppliers as more and more of their inventory is going to AI-centric hardware. He noted that the company finds itself amid supply and cost constraints, particularly in DRAM memory, which is more traditionally reserved for AI servers.
"There is less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory suppliers are passing along huge price increases," Cook said. "We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That's the bottom line."
Industry predictions show that prices for memory and storage chips have increased multiple times since major tech companies started investing billions of dollars in AI. Apple, known for its strong supply chain management and purchasing power, is now struggling to mitigate these losses.
Which Apple Products Will Experience Price Increases?
Apple has not disclosed products or timetables for how much it might price hike. But there are reports that Macs and iPads could be among the first affected categories. Recently, Apple raised the entry price of the Mac Mini, hinting at wider sales changes in its product line.
The next major launch is expected to happen in September with the iPhone 18 series; it is expected that Apple’s first foldable iPhone will also be released. Apple has not explicitly linked this release with price hikes, but analysts believe that future iPhones will be more expensive if component costs continue to rise.
TechInsights estimates that Apple’s current profit margins might require an increase of about $270 in the price of a future iPhone Pro model. Demand for memory in AI servers is expected to remain robust in the future, which continues to pressure consumer electronics manufacturers.
It may disappoint the people who were looking forward to buying an iPhone 18 because they expected lower prices on older models, such as iPhone 17s. Apple typically lowers prices on older models once a new generation is released, but price hikes might curb such discounts this year. Discounts on the iPhone 17 line could be less generous than what Apple customers have come to expect after new releases.
Cook described this situation as unique in his wide-ranging career in technology supply chains: "This is a hundred-year flood," he said. "I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years."