Apple Store External Storage Prices Spike Amid AI-Driven Shortage

[MacRumors]

Apple last week hiked the prices of external hard drives sold through its online store and retail locations, as noted by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman said that Apple updated the pricing on several external drive offerings recently, and the increases are steep. For example, a SanDisk 4TB solid-state external drive that previously sold for around $500 now costs $1,200, while a 1TB model has jumped from $120 to $360.

The price hikes are said to be indirectly caused by the AI-fueled demand for memory and storage chips, which is continuing to squeeze the consumer market. Gurman noted that it is vendors who set the pricing on third-party accessories, rather than Apple. However, the impact on buyers is the same regardless.

It's not just a pricing issue either. External drives on Apple's online store are largely sold out, with most models showing no availability for delivery or in-store pickup. Shoppers at physical Apple Store locations may still find stock, but at the same inflated prices. Similar shortages and hikes can be found at Best Buy, Amazon, and other retailers.

The shortage stems from the same supply crunch that forced Apple to raise MacBook Air and MacBook Pro prices by $100 earlier this month. Its removal of the Mac Studio's top 512GB RAM memory upgrade was also likely related. As things stand, AI data center build-outs are consuming enormous quantities of NAND flash and memory chips, and manufacturers are prioritizing those lucrative enterprise contracts over consumer products. As Gurman notes, the situation is likely to get worse throughout 2026 – and possible beyond.

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Article Link: Apple Store External Storage Prices Spike Amid AI-Driven Shortage

 

[kotaKat]

Slow weekend for Mark?

 

[atomwork]

It amazes me always that companies won't anticipate this ahead of time with all the talented people. But they love cashing in. Seems almost wanted.

 

[Arran]

Storage is about to become the new toilet paper.

 

[svish]

Not at all surprising considering the SSD and RAM shortage situation. Think upgrading to 512 GB iPhones will also be costlier starting with iPhone 18 series. The M6 Pro MacBook Pro also might cost more for the ones with larger SSD.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Not at all surprising considering the SSD and RAM shortage situation. Think upgrading to 512 GB iPhones will also be costlier starting with iPhone 18 series. The M6 Pro MacBook Pro also might cost more for the ones with larger SSD.

If you can, just stick with what you have. Don't play their game.

 

[lcseds]

Excessive increase. But that's Apple for ya.

 

[unchecked]

It amazes me always that companies won't anticipate this ahead of time with all the talented people. But they love cashing in. Seems almost wanted.

I mean to be fair, it's not like they didn't see it if we could see it from last year.

Welcome to a world where future products are purchased by future money promised by a future that is likely won't be here.

And the production capacity is wary of that and are slow in rolling out additional production capacity to avoid oversupply. Which in a way you're right, they want to cash in. But I blame the private money and hyperscalers in this scenario for doing things in a non-sustainable manner.

 

[DocMultimedia]

I bought a Samsung SSD the other day and couldn't believe how far things have jumped. Pretty much everything is rapidly heading up.

 

[Abazigal]

Lucky I picked up a couple of 1 tb Samsung SSD drives in the past when they were on offer on Amazon. Should be able to ride out this period of crazy price spikes. 🙂

 

[ricketysquire]

The best part of all of this is watching people defend AI and LLMs.

 

[AusMness]

The best part of all of this is watching people defend AI and LLMs.

Hey now, local AI is cool and I'm glad I have the chance to watch it evolve real-time, but yeah cloud-based AI we could happily live without

 

[Ascn]

Do you think that the current generation of MacBooks will also be more expensive during the year?
Or at least the upgrade prices?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Pure profit if Apple is suddenly tripling prices on product that has been sitting on the shelves for months, having been manufactured months before that! Or, have the shelves been cleared out of drives and now the vendors pricing kicks in as Apple replenishes the shelves? I'm guessing the former.

 

[Saturn1217]

Looks at 4TB Samsung T7 that I bought right before this insanity started. ❤️❤️❤️

 

[awshucks]

If I had bought a lot of SSDs and RAM before the shortage, I could have resold them now and made significant $$$!

 

[Abydos]

prescience was never part of any curricula that I'm aware of (excluding the odd prophet) , anticipating the point at which a technology reaches the point of exponential growth falls in that category, so give them a break - surprises by their nature are unexpected

 

[rwilliams]

I bought a Samsung SSD the other day and couldn't believe how far things have jumped. Pretty much everything is rapidly heading up.

I looked at buying one when the first 26.4 betas made external drives appear to be read-only and suggested reformatting (fortunately it was fixed in Beta 2). The price of Samsung SSDs at Best Buy had tripled by that time. I thought it was a mistake so I looked elsewhere and it was the same.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Checked the Apple Store, and there is no 4TB SanDisk portable SSD and the 1TB and 2TB versions do seem high, but other brands seem reasonable. Is it just SanDisk ripping people off?

 

[Non-Euclidean]

Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 8 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $1290.00
_____________________

I bought one of these in October for ~600.

 

[rwilliams]

Excessive increase. But that's Apple for ya.

"Gurman noted that it is vendors who set the pricing on third-party accessories, rather than Apple."

 

[loby]

I bought a Samsung SSD the other day and couldn't believe how far things have jumped. Pretty much everything is rapidly heading up.

Glad I bought what I needed last year before the hikes. THEN I thought the prices were high, but now..I don’t think I could afford the prices for high end SSDs that I use in my externals for video editing.

I bought Samsung 980 4TB SSD’s (four of them) over the year last year. Now..not even one or two at the most.

Looks like we are in the long haul until prices come down. Have to make work what I have for awhile instead of buying new.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Between oil, fertilizer, RAM, and storage it looks like we’re headed for quite the recession.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Hey now, local AI is cool and I'm glad I have the chance to watch it evolve real-time, but yeah cloud-based AI we could happily live without

Which is also why storage and memory prices are going nuts. Same problem on a smaller scale.

 

[Hajj.david]

Between oil, fertilizer, RAM, and storage it looks like we’re headed for quite the recession.

Which all have major cascading effects on shipping costs, mfg costs, food costs, etc. Going to get brutal.