You are correct. However, much like any other halfway intelligent company faced with the tariffs, Apple is no saint but really good at business. They were smart enough to negotiate with the Trump regime to get exemptions and exclusions for their most profitable products from the tariffs. They also shifted their supply chain to other countries for manufacturing to avoid the highest tariffs. And they absorbed the cost of the tariffs on their low-volume products, to which they received their 2.2 billion refund from the court ruling that the Tariffs were deemed illegal, thanks to the US tax payer. In the end, our taxes paid for the tariffs in some or fashion. But hey, Apple came out without losing money, am I right?
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New Mac Mini and Mac Studio: 13 Things You Might Have Missed
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Peperino
macrumors 65816
No, I know about the DATA centers.
Though it does not justify a 40% increase, and having baseline RAM at ridiculously levels 256 and 512 as if it is a Phone...
Apple always did this marketing tactics in the past, but this is just a pathetic Joke of bad taste, especially considering like you cannot update neither the RAM nor the internal SSD like int he old days.
diddl14
macrumors 65816
When did you paid for that? And what does that have to do with increased cost of ram that is causing these price hikes?
axelandersh
macrumors member
You will be 100% fine. The leap from Intel to M5 Pro is going to rock your world 🫨
Edit: Speaking from experience, I got a MacBook Pro with M5P, 64gb ram – heavy in Adobe, with After Effects and DaVinci and iStat has barely notched, apart from intensive video conversions. Even rendering flies. I’m pretty sure I could have gotten 48 and been fine, even being more video focused.
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octopi
macrumors regular
Not really. It's just a cloak to hide behind.
Before any of the chip price hikes Apple were making 800% to 1000% markup on ram/ssd components.
Yes, the chips have gone up a lot but if Apple dropped their markup down to 100% - to 200% the machines would barely need to go up (from their original prices) by any more than £50 and they'd still be making a killing.
Completely unjustified hikes.
axelandersh
macrumors member
Tempting the die-hards with extra pricey Macs ahead of new phones feels.. savage
BGPL
macrumors 65816
$500 because of RAM prices? Yeah, no, absolutely not. Apple disgusts me. They've always been greedy but they're breaking some new barriers. They no longer get to say they care about anyone or anything other than capitalism and cash.
venom600
macrumors 65816
Same. My M1 Max Macbook Pro is due for an upgrade and I was looking at the Mac Studio... but not anymore.
iLuddite
macrumors 6502a
Same with the staggered iPhones 18 rollout. Suddenly the Pro/Pro Max become the “cheap” option(s), despite their own price increases
Pretty smart in a diabolical sort of way
iLuddite
macrumors 6502a
Perhaps hold out for the next Neo; might be a nice upgrade for you
venom600
macrumors 65816
It's not just RAM. It's SSDs. It's processors. Every single component has gone way up. SSDs are so expensive now that people who buy SK hynix or Samsung SSDs and have them fail under warranty are being given refunds instead of replacements because the replacements are two to three times what they paid. The capacity to make the processors is so limited that they are having to out bid other companies like Nvidia and Qualcomm (who is raising the prices on their SOCs on 9/1) to get bookings to make the processors, and those can't be completed without the RAM since it is on the SOC. The helium used to make the processors is extremely constrained because of the war with Iran since Qatar makes almost a third of the world supply, which then made China stop exports of it to protect their supply. The plastic used to make this stuff is also constrained. All of that adds up to a seriously messed up situation all around.
Thanks for your insight! This is good to know. Especially considering video work would be a lot more resource intensive.
ddhhddhh2
macrumors 6502
Just look at Wall Street and you know this was always gonna happen, right?
Of course Apple could eat the cost. Hell, at Apple’s scale, they could probably take negative margins for a while during a chip capacity expansion and still be totally fine.
But they can’t. And the answer is Wall Street. Good old Wall Street, America’s favorite thing.
Intel almost got killed by this exact game. There’s no way Apple’s gonna let that happen to them. Imagine Wall Street suddenly deciding Apple deserves the same P/E as some “regular manufacturer.” Oops, there goes a massive chunk of the market cap. What’s Apple supposed to do with that kind of embarrassment?
So yeah, here we are. Everybody gets to welcome the price hike with open arms. And don’t forget to be grateful for it too.
(Micron: “Well… we told you. It’s that big customer’s fault. Don’t come blaming us for the price hikes.”)
Of course Apple could eat the cost. Hell, at Apple’s scale, they could probably take negative margins for a while during a chip capacity expansion and still be totally fine.
But they can’t. And the answer is Wall Street. Good old Wall Street, America’s favorite thing.
Intel almost got killed by this exact game. There’s no way Apple’s gonna let that happen to them. Imagine Wall Street suddenly deciding Apple deserves the same P/E as some “regular manufacturer.” Oops, there goes a massive chunk of the market cap. What’s Apple supposed to do with that kind of embarrassment?
So yeah, here we are. Everybody gets to welcome the price hike with open arms. And don’t forget to be grateful for it too.
(Micron: “Well… we told you. It’s that big customer’s fault. Don’t come blaming us for the price hikes.”)
paulvee
macrumors 6502
You must not track RAM or storage prices due to the AI buildout. You think Apple wants this kind of price hikes? I think not. But it's comfortable to fall back on conspiracy-level logic. They are not going to swallow the insane price hikes from the memory manufacturers. Wait if you can. This bubble will burst eventually. I'm going to have a big resentment over what these memory companies are doing to consumers in favor of their corporate clients. For anyone who follows the industry, they are creating generational bad will.
Polkajunior
macrumors member
StoneJack
macrumors 68040
I have my trusty M1 mac Mini 8/512 and M4 Air 15 inch 16/512 which work both impeccable so I am loaded. The price rise is inevitable in this world, so I hope that both my devices will work for foreseeable future well. I also have no intent to upgrade my Ultra 2 apple watch and my 17 Air iphone.
goomba478
macrumors regular
I unfortunately just spilled a coffee on my M1 Max Studio. I brought it to Apple and they said since it was BTO it’d likely cost more than a new one. I’m heartbroken. It was such a beast of a machine.
Not defending the increases from a company that makes billions, but they did not raise prices until after the tariffs were struck down. They were one of the few companies that ate those costs, so they aren’t taking our tariff money. This is AI related inflation of Storage and RAM
The starting price for there Mini is ridiculous, Apple is devolving not evolving
Not a great way to start off a new CEO's tenure.
Not a great way to start off a new CEO's tenure.
ErikGrim
macrumors 604
My decision to go with the M4 Pro last year is aging like a fine wine.
GregoryPeckEPA
macrumors 6502
$1249 CAD. For 256GB of storage. 2026. W T F.
So this is the AI slop bailout?!? What timeline am I living in!? What is is this insanity!!!
So this is the AI slop bailout?!? What timeline am I living in!? What is is this insanity!!!
