Amen. Until they decide that "smart TVs" need more RAM and storage for bloated AI features.
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Apple Just Increased Prices on MacBooks, iPads, and More
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Indeed. There was a bizarre quote from Microsoft a couple of weeks ago that was something like "We're struggling to make enough Xboxes, because companies [like Microsoft] are buying all the hardware and we can't get any."
I am, admittedly, part of the problem and rely on AI for career advancement, gardening advice, travel planning, and home projects. ChatGPT helped me layout luxury vinyl plank flooring last week, with perfect end cut recommendations to avoid short pieces and weak H and stairstep patterns.
ChatGPT was the fastest growing consumer product ever. If anything, the consumers started to use AI which caused the tech companies to scramble.
If ChatGPT just came and went, none of this would have happened.
Tech companies still pushed for it, and continue to do so whilst the general public are hating it.
HiVolt
macrumors 68020
Prices of refurbished products going up is ridiculous, as they have already been produced, and in many cases are no longer being made at all!
Also HomePod mini going up $30? With its 7 year old S5 SoC, that must have a lot of ram!
Also HomePod mini going up $30? With its 7 year old S5 SoC, that must have a lot of ram!
garirry
macrumors 68000
On one hand it is true that the prices of components have genuinely skyrocketed, not just because of the AI bubble, but also because of general inflation depreciating the real-life value of the dollar.
On the other hand Apple is a trillion-dollar company with some of the highest product margins, premium contracts with chip manufacturers to ensure demand and reasonable cost, and increasingly rely on services for profit. There is no justification to increase prices by this magnitude on the entire market (including relatively low-end devices) when they could trivially absorb the cost difference. They are not desperate to survive and it is dishonest to portray them as victims of the bubble, it's pure profit, that has to be said.
On the other hand Apple is a trillion-dollar company with some of the highest product margins, premium contracts with chip manufacturers to ensure demand and reasonable cost, and increasingly rely on services for profit. There is no justification to increase prices by this magnitude on the entire market (including relatively low-end devices) when they could trivially absorb the cost difference. They are not desperate to survive and it is dishonest to portray them as victims of the bubble, it's pure profit, that has to be said.
jdwusami
macrumors newbie
When Tim said last week that memory and storage prices would be going up, I decided it was time to upgrade from my 16" M2 Max to a 16" M5 Max. The jump from 96 GB to 128 GB of RAM and the increase in memory bandwidth from 400 GB/s to 614 GB/s will be really useful for me and my work.
Now I just have to wait for it to arrive. The only real question is: do I keep suffering through the disaster that is macOS 26, or gamble on macOS 27 and turn my main production machine into a science experiment? At least I’ll still have my M2 Max as a lifeboat when 27 inevitably decides that stability is an optional feature.
Now I just have to wait for it to arrive. The only real question is: do I keep suffering through the disaster that is macOS 26, or gamble on macOS 27 and turn my main production machine into a science experiment? At least I’ll still have my M2 Max as a lifeboat when 27 inevitably decides that stability is an optional feature.
yukari
macrumors 65816
Well, that was not unexpected.
However, that also means I will not be purchasing any of those products anytime soon.
I will now likely keep what I have until it no longer works with the apps I need.
However, that also means I will not be purchasing any of those products anytime soon.
I will now likely keep what I have until it no longer works with the apps I need.
I just bought an M5 Pro MacBook Pro about a month ago. I wasn’t sure about doing it, but now it has become a smart purchase. Glad I did it.
BigMcGuire
macrumors G4
I used an AI to let me know that the image does not appear to be an AI generated picture.
I am part of the sol .... oh, wait ... damnit!
Edit: Sorry, poor attempt at humor.
Yikes, and people try to tell me that we shouldn’t increase people’s wages. Yet, all companies etc get to keep raising prices. Should grab a NEO whilst we can for $599
I have been thinking about buying an iPad Air to replace my iPad mini bought in 2017.
Here in the UK the Apple store is now listing the starting price as £749. John Lewis still have the old price with £20 promotion so have just ordered one from JL for £579 with free next day delivery.
Here in the UK the Apple store is now listing the starting price as £749. John Lewis still have the old price with £20 promotion so have just ordered one from JL for £579 with free next day delivery.
yea, and our pay/wages haven’t gone up. but people keep saying if we raise consumers wages, the economy is hon a collapse
BigMcGuire
macrumors G4
Not sure about anyone else, but as a tech worker in California, a lot of us (and those I know) haven't gotten much of anything since covid while cost of living has exploded. It's not been fun.
BigMcGuire
macrumors G4
The NEO and all its hype are a complete letdown even more now; it’s not worth the price for such underwhelming tech in a nice shell.
Apple today dramatically increased device prices across multiple product lines.
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After temporarily taking it down earlier today, Apple's online store is back up with a series of product price increases. The changes are as follows:
- HomePod mini: $129, up from $99 (+$30)
- HomePod: $349, up from $299 (+$50)
- Apple TV: $199, up from $129 (+$70)
- iPad: $449, up from $349 (+$100)
- iPad mini: $599, up from $499 (+$100)
- iPad Air: $749, up from $599 (+$150)
- iPad Pro: $1,199, up from $999 (+$200)
- MacBook Neo: $699, up from $599 (+$100)
- MacBook Air: $1,299, up from $1,099 (+$200)
- MacBook Pro: $1,999 up from $1,699 (+$300)
- iMac: $1,499, up from $1,299 (+$200)
- Mac mini (M4 Pro): $1,599, up from $1,399 (+$200)
- Mac Studio (M4 Max): $2,499, up from $1,999 (+$500)
- Mac Studio (M3 Ultra): $5,299, up from $3,999 (+$1,300)
- Vision Pro: $3,699, up from $3,499 (+$200)
The average price increase is $246.67. The iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, Studio Display, and accessories such as the Apple Pencil are seemingly the only unaffected product lines.
It is also of note that the 256GB Mac mini is now available again, but for $799. This is a $200 increase over when it was available before temporarily disappearing from the lineup earlier this year.
Last week, Apple announced that it was preparing to raise prices across its product lineup, with CEO Tim Cook confirming that that the move was inevitable. Cook made the announcement in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, citing the soaring cost of memory and storage chips. "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," he said. "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." Cook described the scale of the memory shortage as a "hundred-year flood," adding, "I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years."
Apple has historically absorbed component cost swings rather than passing them on to customers, so this marks a notable shift in approach.
Article Link: Apple Just Increased Prices on MacBooks, iPads, and More
How do they justify refurb price increases? How many refurbs get hardware component changes?
JosephAW
macrumors 604
Thought we were already paying the Apple tax for their products, guess I was wrong. 🙄💰
Uff, you’re mistaken…prompt engineering is a lasting skill, not a temporary hack.
Even the most advanced AI models are tools that respond based on input quality. Skilled prompting is like clear writing, precise programming, or effective delegation: it leverages the system’s full capabilities, reduces hallucinations, chains reasoning, and elicits better-structured outputs.
Top performers consistently get superior results faster than casual users, just as expert coders outperform beginners with the same IDE/language, or great interviewers extract more from the same candidate pool. As models improve, the relative advantage of expertise often grows, not shrinks because advanced users unlock emergent behaviors, custom workflows, and iterative refinement that novices miss. Moreover, knowing how to program your own custom agents is going to be a requirement for most future jobs in the next 2-3 years and then it will quickly start to eliminate the jobs of those that cannot, without replacements.
The “magic” doesn’t eliminate the need for skill; it rewards it. Disparity isn’t short-lived—it’s structural.
AI isn't at fault, only those looking to capitalize on it in the short term. Massive build-outs of data centers is a short-term plan, not long term.
Apple is taking the right approach by figuring out how to run much of AI processing locally.
mittencuh
macrumors regular
Tahoe is totally fine from a stability standpoint. There is no way I would risk my work on a beta OS.
Tim Cook’s big last laugh before he goes! We thought he was money grabbing before? We saw nothing yet! 😂