ImAlwaysRight
macrumors 6502a
Not in the market for buying anything, but the Samsung T5 EVO 8TB SSD drive I purchased new in March of 2025 for $360 is $1,100 today!
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Apple Holds an Edge as Laptop Prices Could Face a 40% Increase
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turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
8 GB of RAM is the maximum this chip can handle in the Neo.
Guys, there’s no master strategy to match market conditions.
The Neo specs were set a long time ago, and this is the max it can do on RAM.
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Big_D
macrumors 6502a
Well, I mean, not every company has the resources to employ programmers that can write software in native formats, like a Windows executable... I mean, who do you think they are, Microsoft? Oh, wait! 🤣
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
I'm just glad Apple software isn't a bloated buggy mess!
(Tahoe has entered the chat)
"Hey guys!"
Big_D
macrumors 6502a
O
On my Mac, Outlook is currently using 464MB. Teams is using 960MB for the core Teams, plus another 616MB für web content...
ProMotionPotato
macrumors member
You're right that 8GB is the chip's ceiling. But Apple chose this chip. That choice was made deliberately, well in advance, with full visibility of where memory prices were heading. Selecting a chip that maxes at 8GB when DRAM costs are spiking isn't a constraint that undermined the strategy. It's how the strategy works.
theapplehead
macrumors 6502a
Honestly it's a genius play by Apple. They are going to soak up so much market share with other PC manufacturers eliminating the $500 laptop range and Apple entering the space with the Neo. Not only that, it's also a higher quality product than say a comparable Chromebook - especially in material as Apple has noted. This will likely be pretty big for Apple
...its also part of maintaining a clear spec difference between the Neo and the Air.
ProMotionPotato
macrumors member
Exactly right, and these two things reinforce each other. The hedge on DRAM exposure and the spec gap between Neo and Air aren't separate decisions. They're the same decision serving two purposes at once. Apple didn't have to choose between protecting the price point and protecting the product ladder. 8GB does both simultaneously.
WarmWinterHat
Suspended
I just sold a 1tb Samsung T7 external SSD for about 60% more on marketplace than I bought it for like three years ago.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
Correct.
The Neo partially exists so they have somewhere to dump old/dud iPhone chips.
ProMotionPotato
macrumors member
Binning isn't dumping. It's how every chip manufacturer extracts value from every wafer. AMD, Intel, they all do it. A chip that didn't meet the highest spec but fully meets a lower one isn't a dud. It's a different SKU. And using a chip at the point where its R&D is fully amortised and per unit costs are lowest isn't getting rid of old stock. It's the optimal moment to put it in a $599 product. The timing isn't incidental. It's the whole point.
WarmWinterHat
Suspended
While true, I don't think Apple had the Neo planned when they were using Tiny Ants in Space to sort these chips, originally. There was an article I read somewhere where A LOT of engineering work was done get a second usb port, meaning it was a big-time afterthought.
In short, these chips were going to be ground into sand if the Neo hadn't come along. You're absolutely right, though, it's a smart business move.
The math just doesn't work out for a 40% increase in the price of a laptop.
Example is a $900 (retail) laptop, and they say 15% of that is the cost of SSD and RAM (already confused because now we're talking OEM cost, not retail, but OK), so lets say RAM and SSD cost $135 (seems high for a $900 laptop). A 30% increase in that cost is roughly $40. So the manufacturer has a $40 increase in cost. A projected 40% increase in the laptop price is $900 x 0.40, or $360.
Can someone explain how increasing the retail (already has profit baked in) price $360 for a $40 part price increase makes any sense or am I not understanding something?
It's also not uncommon for a $900 laptop to go on sale for $600. $300 less. Maybe just don't put your laptop on a fire sale instead of jacking up the price in a seemingly price-gouging activity.
Example is a $900 (retail) laptop, and they say 15% of that is the cost of SSD and RAM (already confused because now we're talking OEM cost, not retail, but OK), so lets say RAM and SSD cost $135 (seems high for a $900 laptop). A 30% increase in that cost is roughly $40. So the manufacturer has a $40 increase in cost. A projected 40% increase in the laptop price is $900 x 0.40, or $360.
Can someone explain how increasing the retail (already has profit baked in) price $360 for a $40 part price increase makes any sense or am I not understanding something?
It's also not uncommon for a $900 laptop to go on sale for $600. $300 less. Maybe just don't put your laptop on a fire sale instead of jacking up the price in a seemingly price-gouging activity.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
I think you're analyzing it too much.
The spirit of this is supposed to be "Pro-Apple" and thus faith and belief are employed, not facts and analysis.
"Hey Siri, please activate the RDF"
Because the m4 Max was a mistake, the m4 Max interconnects didn't scale, hence the Mac Studio with a m3 Ultra instead of a m4 Ultra. Apple fixed that with the m5 Max.
WilliApple
macrumors 68000
It is dumping until you make a product to use them in, then it's binning. 😉
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
Hay there Tim Warwick, your math is wrong. A 15% increase in memory does not calulate to a 30% price increase. It also does not mean a 15% increase to "hold their margins." Your language "could force retail prices" implies magrin as a percentage of retail price. The correct calulation depends on an unknown whcih is the margin %. If the margin is 30%, then the required percenatge increase in price to maintain that that 30% would be 21.3%.
Hoping for feedback from others to check my math.
Hoping for feedback from others to check my math.
snipr125
macrumors 68030
Yep, now can we talk about the other extreme end of the scale. Who on earth would need 512 GB of RAM for the Mac Studio? That's the size of most peoples internal storage?!? I guess to run very large LLM's locally?
People don't need it, and it's extremely expensive which is likely why Apple discontinued it. Poor sales = product quietly dropped. It's the Apple way.
Though there was a price hike for models with M5, glad that they are starting at 512GB now. Think the next mini and iMac too will have a $100 increase and start at 512. Apple will try to maintain margins and if component price increases further, Apple will be forced to increase prices for consumers.
Outside of the US the Neo is still quite expensive, especially relative to what people earn in the rest of the world. In the EU you'll pay ~930 USD for a MacBook with 512GB of SSD. Much cheaper than the Air, but still not really in bargain territory.
You may well be right, however....
It's not clear what exchange rate you used. In terms of affordability the only appropraite exchange rate is the Purchasing Power Parity exchange rate. While a single PPP dollar-Euro rate does exist, to answer "relative to what people earn" you must use a national-level dollar-Euro PPP currency exchange rate which varies a lot from Luxembourg to Lithuania - or the local currency PPP exchange rate for 7 non-Euro EU members. (For those not familiar, check this wikipedia entry for the Big Mac Index.)
Sales and VAT taxes are basically the same thing, but in the USA they are added to the price while in the Euro Zone they are included in the price. For California with a 10% sales tax that $699 512GB Neo actually sells for $769. Euro zone VAT rates vary from 17-27%. That $930 converted to pre-tax price ranges from $732 if the VAT was 27% (cheaper than in California) to $794 is it was 17%.
You didn't say which country in the EU or which currency. The Apple retail prices on the EU zone do vary by country, at a minimum to accomodate VAT, much the same as after tax prices vary in states based on sales tax added.