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Apple Just Increased Prices on MacBooks, iPads, and More
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BSDnostalgia
macrumors 6502a
Depends on how you mean it. Cell-phone PDAs existed before iPhones. I had one. But, the iPhone was a sweet combination of easy-to-use and much more reliable H/W S/W. Steve certainly had his RDF going on full, but, the product sold itself. Except for the AT&T tie-in part.
Apple was, in some sense, late-to-market for almost everything. But, first-to-market for user-friendly versions of some of those things.
I am not saying the whole product line will go away.
Like with the Apple Watch, which is still around, even in an "Ultra" model.
But the top tiers of that product line will likely go away. Due to lack of purchases.
There are costs involved in producing and testing these configurations, stock needs to be kept for future repairs, etc.
All this may not be viable anymore for Apple.
And I think the signs are there already.
According to latest rumors Apple seems to be planning to revamp the entry model of the MacBook Pro line. Not the whole lineup.
Seems Apple understand that the higher models won't sell well and hence decided to not update them as often anymore.
Or they want to wait and see how well the revamped entry model sells versus the older, higher-end models.
We shall see how this develops.
But I sense that from now on, it won't be "business as usual" in their high-end laptop range anymore.
Sure. But people’s recollection of Apple’s breakthroughs back in the day tends to be compressed. iPod and iPhone were 6 years apart. Which breakthroughs happened between those? Maybe iPod Mini could be said to be a breakthrough.
Apple Watch in 2015 was a breakthrough. M1 in 2020 was a breakthrough. One could argue Face ID in 2017 was a breakthrough Arguably Vision Pro in 2024 was a breakthrough, though commercially a failure. I don’t see the slowdown.
Which rumours is that? Latest rumour is that Apple will skip M6 Pro/Max and go directly to M7, for the revamped top-end MacBook Pro, because that’s where the jump in AI performance will take place. That goes directly against your argument - Apple is speeding up the high-end, not slowing down.
If anything, this whole AI-driven price crisis is based on demand for high end performance being near limitless.
(Mac Pro doesn’t work for AI because a bunch of Minis gives you better performance per dollar and especially per square foot).
Skwoodge
macrumors regular
Apple's memory and storage were already absurdly overpriced.
The latest Bloomberg report:
Apple Readies New iPad Pro, Redesigned Entry MacBook Pro for 2027
Apple Inc. is preparing an upgraded iPad Pro line and a redesigned entry-level MacBook Pro for next year, adding to a slate of several other major new products planned for the iPhone’s 20th anniversary year.
www.bloomberg.com
Oh no, AAPL stock has recovered to a higher price than its close on the day the hardware price increases were announced. How could this happen?
No, it illustrates a common misunderstanding of market capitalization vs free cash.
I’m not sure why you believe that article supports your statement? This rumoured entry MacBook Pro is supposed to come alongside the new touchscreen high-end versions.The latest Bloomberg report:
Subscription required. But you can find summaries on some other websites.Apple Readies New iPad Pro, Redesigned Entry MacBook Pro for 2027
Apple Inc. is preparing an upgraded iPad Pro line and a redesigned entry-level MacBook Pro for next year, adding to a slate of several other major new products planned for the iPhone’s 20th anniversary year.
Apple’s responsibility is to earn as much money as possible. It doesn’t matter how much money they already have. What matters is what the price needs to be given the situation, to earn as much as possible in total. Not per machine of course. The trick is finding the right balance between high margin and high revenue.
You call this a hike?? $246 average is no hike, its like robbery.
Bazza1
macrumors 65816
...and consumer stupidity.
Not just with Apple, either. Though Apple users are traditionally more gullible than most.
Look at other computer manufacturers and the insane leap in price of everything - USB drives, external drives, etc.
If we are to believe the rationale from them, all because of the demands of data centers supporting a product yet another provider says we all absolutely want and demand. Even though most providers show a significant lack of interest in it by most consumers.
We're all paying for a product we haven't bought and hasn't shown a profit for shareholders. All while making the products we do want / need unrealistically expensive. Yet there will those who normalize the situation with a shrug and pay over the odds, justifying the hike to Apple et al.
Even many commentators find this rumor to be surprising.
That Apple would introduce their MacBook Ultra models in a super-slim form factor - originally to differentiate it from the MacBook Pro line - only now to also apply this super-slim form factor to the lower end MacBook Pro model. But not the higher-end MacBook Pro model.
The MacBook Ultra series, if it happens but rumors suggest it will, is going to be the new highest high-end MacBook model. Which IMHO is now in a somewhat dire situation as Apple just raised its prices by a whopping 50% or even more for all high-end configurations. The MacBook Ultra will likely retail for up to $15,000, if not more in its highest spec configuration, and at that price it is not going to make massive sales IMHO.
So it will likely not be the run-away success, at least the highest specced models, that Apple had hoped, at times when this model was scheduled to cost only up to $10,000. And that is exactly my point.
Apparently realizing this, Apple according to these rumors, now decided to no longer give the Ultra series a 1-2 year lead - as they probably anticipated that sales will not be as great as they had originally planned - so they decided to much sooner apply the new design elements of the Ultra series down to the Pro series.
And most surprisingly not the whole Pro series, but starting with the lower-end 14" model.
And that is exactly proving my point in a second way, as Apple knows that the high-end MacBook Pro models will no longer sell well from now on anyway, they focus on the lower-end models first. On top of that, if the 16" MacBook Pro model would also get the new design soon, the Ultra series will be cannibalized.
If Apple were so sure that their highend Ultra series would sell like hot cakes due to their own merits alone - and that price is ultimately no factor for buyers - they would not have excluded the 16" MacBook Pro from the early upgrade, and would not even have upgraded the 14" Pro model that early either.
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horsefeathers
macrumors member
Whatever you say. Apple absolutely positions itself as a premium brand and you’re kind of absurd for suggesting otherwise.
You're not understanding what I mean. Prices are a suggestion. You can position yourself any way you want, but the customer has to validate it.
Have you been in your Apple Store lately it does not seem to have an affect our stores in Houston Texas still crowded and people are purchasing.
Yes, by making sure that there is more free cash for Apple by leaving less free cash for consumers. And yes, I know what free cash flow is. Apple has always been a premium brand, and just when they were finally becoming competitively affordable in the current inflation and memory-crunch context ($599 Mac Mini, $599 Neo), Apple went ahead and reset themselves back into being expensive. It’s no big deal and I don’t judge them for it.
eltoslightfoot
macrumors 68040
The mods deleted the post before, but this actually isn't true anymore. Samsung charges the same prices as Apple. Dell charges the same prices as Apple. THERE IS NO MORE APPLE TAX.
For instance, M5 Max Macbook Pro 16", 64 GB RAM, 2TB SSD, max cores you can get is $5300.
But Lenovo has an equivalent Lenovo Legion 16" 7 Pro with an RTX5090 and 1TB SSD, 64GB RAM, 1600p OLED, etc., that costs, currently (it keeps going up) costs $6200!
Okay so what about phones?
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra costs $1299 which is $100 more than the same as the iPhone 17 Pro Max at 256 GB for each.
There just isn't a tax any more for going Apple. Increasingly it is becoming a bargain...
Can confirm. Mentioned before but the price changed on Amazon. The same SSD I got for 95 dollars in 2023, is now 219 (20 percent off retail of 275). That's nearly 200 more than I paid 3 years ago (at retail). Quite the coincidence with Apple's price hike on the Mac Mini.
KhunJay
macrumors 6502a
I am curious to listen to exactly what he said:was it at his stepping don speech? I don't pay attention to all apple's communiques.
On another note, have they increased prices of items that contain no chips or RAM...like mousepads, keyboards etc?
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
June 17th, MR ran a story warning of price hikes:
Tim Cook Says Apple Price Increases Are 'Unavoidable' Due to Memory Costs
8 days later, we have the price hike
Tim Cook Says Apple Price Increases Are 'Unavoidable' Due to Memory Costs
8 days later, we have the price hike
You’re right. I’ve noticed it as well. However I just see it as Samsung raising their prices beyond what they deserve to (as Apple has “earned it” better than the others have). And I say that as someone who used Android smartphones for 10 years. But this is true. I think it’s also the reason why Apple’s supply/demand imbalance become too much for them recently when everything was flying off the shelves, being perceived as a genuine bargain for consumers. Now it’s more or less back to the way it was, which is slightly expensive for what you get and more premium, but still worth it for many (we will all get used to it).
CWallace
macrumors G5
Apple has been aggressively going after the world's supply of the memory used in high-end smartphones to ensure they have enough for the iPhone - hence why their memory costs have doubled with their latest contracts. This is said to be pinching supply available for other smartphone suppliers. So Samsung Electronics is likely paying significantly more for what memory they can get for their flagship line.