Apple Just Increased Prices on MacBooks, iPads, and More

[redheeler]

Apple has historically absorbed component cost swings rather than passing them on to customers, so this marks a notable shift in approach.

The price increases happened but would come with hardware updates so it didn't look like the customer was getting screwed and at least getting something out of it. Price increases with no hardware updates puts Apple in a really bad light. The Mac mini is again getting treated like it was in the late Intel days with too little storage for too much money.

 

[redheeler]

Many of us yelling at Tim today:

Exactly what it feels like to stand up for any lesser-known cause

 

[Bruce205]

In the last couple of years I have purchased my M4 mini, Apple Watch S11,Studio Display 2026 and iPhone 16 Plus so I think I'll be good for a few years hopefully. Also have Windows pc running Win10 and an old PC running Linux.

 

[MontgomeryG]

oh woah - Costco just sold out of my computer within 22 hours of ordering it. Man. That's a trip. Don't delay on retail farming.

 

[MontgomeryG]

proof :

 

[MontgomeryG]

In the last couple of years I have purchased my M4 mini, Apple Watch S11,Studio Display 2026 and iPhone 16 Plus so I think I'll be good for a few years hopefully. Also have Windows pc running Win10 and an old PC running Linux.

How do you like the watch thing? I haven't worn one in 18 years but it looks nice and is worn by every nurse and EMT. So it must be good for something.

 

[MontgomeryG]

The price increases happened but would come with hardware updates so it didn't look like the customer was getting screwed and at least getting something out of it. Price increases with no hardware updates puts Apple in a really bad light. The Mac mini is again getting treated like it was in the late Intel days with too little storage for too much money.

You sound like 1990. No offense. :

Typed on a RYZEN powered Atari from 2020 with linux. Apple since 1988 - poor (mac plus) needs new caps. And a sit in the sun (solar bleaching - it's a thing try first - ive done with old game hardware (it works!!)- it's worth a shot and is free). Oh I can pull rank. Do you own and still own a NeXT? I do AND the laser printer. I'm a sucker for odd computers.

 

[harrisonjr98]

When the price increases were announced, I went on Best Buy's website and spotted a local-to-me open box 14" M5 Pro (15 core, 24GB, 1TB.) I was not planning to upgrade my base 14" M1 Pro until the OLED refresh, but now that we're looking at a strong possibility of a $3k+ starting price and a delayed release, I decided to hop on the train with a well-received generation before it's too late. Got it for $1700 since it was open box - it is spotless with all of 2 battery cycles and passed my OCD eye. Could not resist it at a full $800 savings from the new price point.

 

[jennyp]

I was about to upgrade my M2 Max MBP but now that the configuration I want is at least £1,000 more, I’m just not going to bother.

Ditto with the unexciting iPhone 18 on the horizon.

Just maybe, Apple’s brutal ‘pass the increased RAM price onto the customer’ strategy is going to make things worse for them. Disappointing times for Apple hardware buyers.

 

[Bazzy]

Hi All,

Whenever I speak to my Windows friends about Laptops/Computers, I usually always tell them to switch to Apple for a less miserable experience & they almost all always bring up the high cost of Apple products - this was before this insanely high price rise. They will all pummel me to a pulp now if I mention they should switch to Apple with these sky high prices.

I had a very big feeling this is exactly what was going to happen a few weeks ago - I suspected that price increases were not going to be incremental but draconian. I wanted to upgrade from my 2015 15" rMBP & was deciding whether to wait for the M6 Models (hoping the price rises might just be a $100-$200 but my spidy senses strongly told me otherwise so I heeded them & bought a 16" M5 Pro, 24GB, 1TB here in the UK for £1850 - this same model is now a Whopping £2,999!

If I had not done so, I swear I would be crying a river right now.

If we in the West find these prices so very draconian & crazy high then just think what consumers in countries where the economies & purchasing power do not match US/European ones - South & Central Americas, Asia, Africa etc - Apple products are usually the most expensive in these places anyway but now, they will be totally & completely unaffordable for the vast majority in most of the world - I wonder if Apple took that into account?

 

[MontgomeryG]

I was about to upgrade my M2 Max MBP but now that the configuration I want is at least £1,000 more, I’m just not going to bother.

Ditto with the unexciting iPhone 18 on the horizon.

Just maybe, Apple’s brutal ‘pass the increased RAM price onto the customer’ strategy is going to make things worse for them. Disappointing times for Apple hardware buyers.

Check local retailers first. You might get lucky. Also we're insanely thankful for your teams. Very gracious guests.

 

[MontgomeryG]

If we in the West find these prices so very draconian & crazy high then just think what consumers in countries where the economies & purchasing power do not match US/European ones - South & Central Americas, Asia, Africa etc - Apple products are usually the most expensive in these places anyway but now, they will be totally & completely unaffordable for the vast majority in most of the world - I wonder if Apple took that into account?

It's a mess - from your own govt and tariffs on import and don't get me started in Brazil (that's been on for 40 years). Currency crazy crap - you decide. You can't smuggle a mac mini past customs at the airport.

 

[Harddrive]

No one wants to pay more but anyone over the age of 65 knows what we had to pay for computers was like making a car payment cell phones were for doctors and lawyers and the cost of printers were pretty high with most of the country on dial up and the fortunate few on DSL so as bad as it is I remember far worse.

 

[Abazigal]

Question: If Apple is able to buy cheaper memory, do you think this will be reflected in lower consumer prices?

Apple seeks to buy memory chips from blacklisted Chinese company

Optimistically, yes.

Some people here seem to think that the current ram crisis provided Apple with the perfect cover to permanently raise prices. What people are in essence saying is that Apple has been underpricing their products by that much for the past decade, simply because they didn't know better?

I would think that if Apple thought they could get away with raising prices by 15-20% across the board, and not have sales affected too adversely, they would not have had to wait until today. It doesn't hurt that everyone else have also raised their pricing, from Microsoft to Valve, so it's also harder for consumers to jump ship to a cheaper alternative which simply doesn't exist.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

No one wants to pay more but anyone over the age of 65 knows what we had to pay for computers was like making a car payment cell phones were for doctors and lawyers and the cost of printers were pretty high with most of the country on dial up and the fortunate few on DSL so as bad as it is I remember far worse.

... and none of that was needed to just live your life. (You don't need to be over 65 to remember the 80s and 90s).

Now it's all essential.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

People have a hard cut off at certain price point, above which they are not going to pay - either can't afford or can't justify it.

Even if all OEMs raise prices, not all are going to be in the same price range.

Put it this way - if a customer can't afford more than $600 on a specific device, and Apple is $599 and some lesser brand $250, many will choose Apple.

If prices go up by $300 and Apple is now $899 and that lesser brand $550, they will have no choice but to buy that brand, unless someone gives them a matching raise (not happening).

So, Apple is making its products less appealing to a whole group of consumers.

And the problem is, some of them are going to realize that they are perfectly fine with that other brand that they would not even consider before, and there's no more incentive for them to pay Apple premium even if their earnings go up in the future.

Does anyone remember how the Korean automotive brands first appeared on the US market?

 

[dwhankner]

Wow. Glad I bought an m5 MacBook Air 15 inch and an m5 MacBook Pro 14 inch . I also bought an m4 max Mac Studio 8 months ago and a few m4 Mac minis. I guess I had a sense that prices would go up and the m4 and m5 chips were the right time to ditch intel chip Mac’s.

 

[Zwhaler]

Question: If Apple is able to buy cheaper memory, do you think this will be reflected in lower consumer prices?

Apple seeks to buy memory chips from blacklisted Chinese company

No, it will be reflected in greater corporate profits.
I suspect Apple may lower some prices later in but not all of them.

 

[Zwhaler]

If prices go up by $300 and Apple is now $899 and that lesser brand $550, they will have no choice but to buy that brand, unless someone gives them a matching raise (not happening).

So, Apple is making its products less appealing to a whole group of consumers.

This is the same exact segment that Apple was gaining massive ground with right before the prices increased happened, e.g. the MacBook Neo crowd. So basically, Apple is back to being Apple again.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

This is the same exact segment that Apple was gaining massive ground with right before the prices increased happened, e.g. the MacBook Neo crowd. So basically, Apple is back to being Apple again.

The Neo was an outlier. You make it sound as if Apple has been making inroads with a whole series of products when they instead released one product to use up binned chips and were apparently taken by surprise by just how well it was selling, so I have a strong feeling they would've raised the price of Neo anyway so it wouldn't compete with Air.

However, all Macs make up just 8.1% of Apple revenue. Wearables and accessories are at 8.6%, services at 26% and iPhone over 50%.

Making iPhone too expensive would have a major ripple effect through services, wearables and accessories. And it is already very expensive and is only going up with 18 and foldables. A top of the line brand name Chinese flagship phone with Android, when you completely max out available options (e.g. 16 Gb / 1 Tb) already costs as much or less than a barebone base iPhone 17. And yes, they do have real brand names - Xiaomi, Realmi, Oppo, OnePlus (I believe the last three are all owned by the same company) are pretty well respected phones in many markets, including parts of Europe. They mainly compete with Samsung but are already starting to grab market share from Apple in the markets where the iPhone is getting too pricey. They aren't as polished as iPhones but they load them up with bleeding edge tech and specs and bells and whistles on the cheap, and they are getting better and better.

 

[misskiki]

It's not just hardware price increases. Apple's and every other big tech stocks will collapse soon. The first 40 seconds of the "CEO" video above explains this. So if enough people refuse to buy anything at these massive prices, the market will adjust.

 

[MontgomeryG]

No one wants to pay more but anyone over the age of 65 knows what we had to pay for computers was like making a car payment cell phones were for doctors and lawyers and the cost of printers were pretty high with most of the country on dial up and the fortunate few on DSL so as bad as it is I remember far worse.

Try a 19k 5 ton unit AC - oh wow - that's bigtime fun plus installation (on the freaking roof because your house is from 1979 and is raised ducting on a slab vs the rest of humanity).

 

[Abazigal]

This is the same exact segment that Apple was gaining massive ground with right before the prices increased happened, e.g. the MacBook Neo crowd. So basically, Apple is back to being Apple again.

The MacBook Neo was made possible due to a confluence of factors, namely the A18 pro chip effectively being free. Not only does Apple appear to have burnt through their entire stock of binned A18 pro chips way sooner than anticipated, but subsequent chips are going to cost way more to manufacture. Thus necessitating a price hike.

All other things equal, of course Apple would prefer more sales to less, but they are not going to sacrifice their margins in the process. I have a small theory about how Macbook Neo users may help drive Creator Studio subscriptions, but maybe not enough to move the needle right now in this economy. 😛

 

[sevenofnine1967]

Apple today dramatically increased device prices across multiple product lines.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

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

Why is the company using ram prices to gouge it’s users when Apple is a $4 trillion company. It’s just the excuse to raise the prices and it’s unacceptable and disrespectful.

 

[Dreamail]

Question: If Apple is able to buy cheaper memory, do you think this will be reflected in lower consumer prices?

Apple seeks to buy memory chips from blacklisted Chinese company

I bet it'll be the same as with gas prices...

If the price of crude oil goes up, the gas price at the pump shoots up the next hour - even though that gas was produced from crude oil months ago at lower prices.
And once the price of crude comes down, it takes months and months for the gas price to come down just 50% of what crude oil prices became cheaper.

Once memory prices came down, I bet Apple will find other excuses to keep their Mac prices high. Then it'll be electricity costs during production, or price for aluminium, or price for transport, or price for paper, whatever.
They'll find an excuse to not pass on those savings at full... If ever.