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Apple Store External Storage Prices Spike Amid AI-Driven Shortage

Bazza1 said:
I have found Apple Stores to be notoriously overpriced for the same product elsewhere. Sometimes the packaging references 'formatted for Apple' (or Mac), as if that rationalizes the hike - and I guess for consumers who may not be familiar with / comfortable with formatting via Disk Utility would see that pre-formatted drive as a draw.
Well that and they are used to be gouged for products at the store.

But now seems to be an issue everywhere.
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Was going to say... prices have been going up everywhere. My wife had to buy a 2TB SSD for her work a month ago and wow, that was an eye watering price.

For example - Amazon:
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Was looking at a LaCie SSD last year. Launched at $500. It’s not $1,349.

I slept on it and figured I’d consider if after the holidays.

Whoops! I don’t need more storage that badly so I’ll just delete some of my current used space.
 
840quadra said:
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.
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Considering that Western Digital has no stock of HDDs for all of 2026 because they've sold them all to AI companies, I doubt "reasonable" hdd prices will last long. They're already starting to rise in price
 
DocMultimedia said:
I bought a Samsung SSD the other day and couldn't believe how far things have jumped. Pretty much everything is rapidly heading up.
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Back in early February I was looking an external SSD to help someone migrate to a new Mac. Even then external SSD prices were much higher than a year ago. I ended giving them a mechanical USB drive that was no longer being used.
 
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erthquake said:
Back in early February I was looking an external SSD to help someone migrate to a new Mac. Even then external SSD prices were much higher than a year ago. I ended giving them a mechanical USB drive that was no longer being used.
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Sometimes it's way cheaper just to buy a USB-C NVMe enclosure and search out a NVMe SSD deal for cheap and make your own, instead of paying these pre-made prices.
 
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I finagled a Crucial 8TB portable SSD back in November for $150 during a sale and a $250 cash bonus for opening a Prime cc. Would like another, but I weep seeing it at about $790 on Amazon today.
 
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wadek said:
I finagled a Crucial 8TB portable SSD back in November for $150 during a sale and a $250 cash bonus for opening a Prime cc. Would like another, but I weep seeing it at about $790 on Amazon today.
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Wait…are you saying you only paid a net of $150 for it because you applied the $250 gift card? I remember the $380 deal for that SSD. I WANTED to get one because it was such a great deal. Didn’t get it because I didn’t need it. Feel vaguely regretful now 🤣
 
Mr. Bear said:
Wait…are you saying you only paid a net of $150 for it because you applied the $250 gift card? I remember the $380 deal for that SSD. I WANTED to get one because it was such a great deal. Didn’t get it because I didn’t need it. Feel vaguely regretful now 🤣
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Exactly. Got an ad for a $250 gift card to open a credit card, which was applied to my account like 2 minutes after being approved. I was flabbergasted. I suppose I'm not even counting the 5% cashback for using that card at Amazon.
 
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vinegarshots said:
Considering that Western Digital has no stock of HDDs for all of 2026 because they've sold them all to AI companies, I doubt "reasonable" hdd prices will last long. They're already starting to rise in price
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Potentially, but I am talking here and now, and thankfully I am a Seagate guy!
 
Nothing like hiking the prices of items that have been stuck on shelves and inventory for ages. That'll shift em.
 
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