Apple Store External Storage Prices Spike Amid AI-Driven Shortage

[Marswarrior462]

I really wish I could go back in time and convince myself to get either an external SSD for my M4 Pro Mac mini earlier or save up a buy a 2TB+ Mac mini instead of just a 1TB. I have officially missed my chance and I’m stuck worrying about running out of storage for the foreseeable future

 

[Bazza1]

Wandered into a Best Buy recently - stunned at the spikes in all storage - HDD, SSD, USB Drives, SD Cards and MicroSD.
Some well over 100%.

Another reason to question the value of AI.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

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.

Same. I built a 3x12tb NAS almost two years ago and have a smattering of random external drives around. Today that NAS would cost 4x what I paid.

I sold a 1TB Samsung T7 external drive a few weeks ago for about 150% of what I paid for it on Marketplace..I hadn't used it over a year. A videographer for a local tv news station bought it, and drove up to the spot in an official mobile news van (with the dish on top, and all). I guess they are getting desperate, too!

 

[canadianreader]

a SanDisk 4TB solid-state external drive that previously sold for around $500 now costs $1,200

That price is for the SanDisk PRO-G40 SSD the 4tb Extreme is still under $500 on amazon.

 

[Agent007]

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

If my aunt had a dick, she'd be my uncle

 

[magbarn]

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

Look on the bright side, hopefully it'll kill the Ai circular financing going on right now and finally end the shortages.

 

[KES3059A3]

**** ai

 

[CarAnalogy]

Look on the bright side, hopefully it'll kill the Ai circular financing going on right now and finally end the shortages.

The circular financing seems to be propping up the economy though. We needed to off ramp that more carefully and generate some actual value. This is just going to further drive inflation. Now that they can charge more why would they ever substantially lower the price again.

 

[Fishrrman]

Remember back in the days when the cost of digital storage seemed destined to get cheaper every year...?

 

[MacBH928]

I thought AI made RAM expensive not SSD

 

[AusMness]

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

I mean kind of? Local AI doesn’t need much more if any more ram than what comes already - my 12GB iPhone handles everything I throw at it - and it certainly is a significantly smaller difference than the mass amounts of it in ai data centres

 

[CarAnalogy]

I mean kind of? Local AI doesn’t need much more if any more ram than what comes already - my 12GB iPhone handles everything I throw at it - and it certainly is a significantly smaller difference than the mass amounts of it in ai data centres

Just out of curiosity what are you using on your iPhone for local LLM?

 

[CarAnalogy]

I mean kind of? Local AI doesn’t need much more if any more ram than what comes already - my 12GB iPhone handles everything I throw at it - and it certainly is a significantly smaller difference than the mass amounts of it in ai data centres

I just meant that a lot of enthusiasts are buying up what storage and SSD remains available for their own local LLMs so it’s driving the prices up for everything even more. GPU prices finally got semi decent and then this happens.

 

[ignatius345]

As I read, I’m listening to my Time Machine backup grind along on a 4 TB spinning HDD. I had vaguely planned to weed it out of my setup soon in favor of an SSD, but since that’s more of a “nice to have” for a backup, I’m definitely not up for spending $400 to make it happen.

 

[M4irmidnight]

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.

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

In the end all these tech companies would love nothing more than to be able to force you into cloud subscriptions for literally the entire computer and data .

 

[goodcow]

Storage is about to become the new toilet paper.

Companies are locking into three and five year memory and storage contracts now, so the prices won't be coming down for years.

 

[840quadra]

Meanwhile rotating storage is still a reasonable price.

I keep my M.2 externals mostly clear and stick to using them for fast IO needs. For the price I can buy multiple 2.5 drives and have redundancy in storage as compared to a single 4TB M.2 or other external option.

 

[goodcow]

Excessive increase. But that's Apple for ya.

How is this on Apple? An 8TB NVMe SSD I bought in 2024 for $599 is now $2729 for the same model.

 

[chrono1081]

Excessive increase. But that's Apple for ya.

It's literally those prices everywhere. I need a new drive and everyone is charging the same.

 

[chrono1081]

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

I wish I would have even though I didn't need it at the time.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

How is this on Apple? An 8TB NVMe SSD I bought in 2024 for $599 is now $2729 for the same model.

Here's an example:

SanDisk - PRO-G40 SSD 2TB​

Apple Store price is $750. Best Buy price is $409.

Is Apple waiting for the shelves to empty of lower priced old stock before raising the price or are they price gouging the old stock they paid lower prices for?

No one is arguing prices have gone up, but some of the pricing is clearly for pure profit and making this crisis even worse.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

It's literally those prices everywhere. I need a new drive and everyone is charging the same.

Depends on the drive and how much effort you put into finding one at a lower price. See my example above.

 

[switz]

The common thread is now that prices for anything for sale are increasing much faster than inflation while wages are stagnant. So the poorer get poorer and the rich get richer.

Remember French history when this happened. A queen lost her head over it. 😱

 

[FriednTested]

AI is starting to sound like a curse. Memory shortages. Job losses. Water shortage. Spike in electricity prices. Environmental damage. What next?

 

[LightProtector]

I hate this so much