Tim Cook Says Apple Price Increases Are 'Unavoidable' Due to Memory Costs

[chinanderm]

Apple already raised the price of the Mac mini from $599 to $799 by eliminating its lowest-tier model.

That's not how it works.

 

[coachgq]

I'm quite happy I upgraded to a 17 Pro rather than waiting. Price increases were inevitable.

I just did the same. Came from a 15 pro. An increase of roughly 10 hours (with new battery so closer to 11 hours now). I’m good for a couple more years.

 

[kwikdeth]

As long as they’re honest enough to bring the prices back down when memory becomes sustainable, then I’m happy.

It will be much like gasoline. Slowly, eventually, but not after making a hefty profit first.

 

[Jensend]

MacRumors should probably go ahead and change everything on the Buyer's Guide to "Buy now".

 

[MrMojo1]

It's not just a supply shortage but most likely it's tariffs related but CEO's don't want to go on record blaming tariffs.
Companies are going to raise prices further as they can’t hold off paying the tariffs directly any longer & will eventually pass it onto consumers.

 

[JosephAW]

Ok pay me more for my trade-in. 😵

 

[Siliconguy]

There's a huge army of people who absolutely do, very vocally, very publicly, and also on this forum.

My dissertation in 1997 specifically pointed out the non-linear nature of failures when a neural network sees an input condition that was not in the training set. You call them hallucinations now which is a good name for them.

They have their uses, but you can't trust them. Or at very least trust but verify.

 

[loby]

I see you don't understand what exactly is going on. It's not Apple being greedy. It's the shortage of RAM affecting the whole industry. So your beloved Android Phones will also suffer from this issue.
To give you an example, yesterday I ordered a UniFi Router, Switch and 2 Access Points for a client.
They added a "Memory Surcharge" fee of $104.00 to the order.
And if it's not this, it's the Tariff, or the high cost of fuel, etc.
It's something the vendors have to pay, and pass the cost to the buyer.

Agree. From my little understanding (and a little research), the issue is that memory manufacturing companies produce a certain amount of memory for the corporate (producer-services) and a certain amount for the consumer markets. Each are allocated by their projections of demand/need, sales vs. their resources and manufacturing capacities.

In the beginning for each year (but projected even probably a few years before). Memory manufacturing companies have already allocated their supplies to the consumer markets, but in Apple's case as other big companies who have contractual options in place, have already negotiated/contracted their supplies and needs years ago and/or a few years ago for an agreed purchasing price/per unit - this is why Apple already had a set price for their memory and did not need to raise prices earlier until now or soon.

What has happened is that the A.I. companies have bought out and used up their supplies too fast to meet the growing demand in the game to be the dominate or "it" for the A.I. boom. Any excess or surplus of memory chips etc. goes to that client(s) because the consumer markets are secondary on their priority list. The very same memory I bought last year has doubled or tripled in costs on Amazon... Supplier priorities are NOT the consumer markets. We get the "crumbs or what is the left-overs basically.."

So it is really not Apple or other type companies fault that sell in the consumer markets (but I wouldn't give Apple any pass for their decisions to raise prices (regardless) because they should have found a way to eat the costs without lowering standards as other industries do..Apple's memory costs were already high (including profit) before this shortage). Tim is a master at this, so if he actually says they are hurting, it is quite possibly and probably may be the case that they are...but ONLY in the sense that any changes or cuts to Apple would only hurt his profit margin, and he won't do it, maybe for the short term, but not toward Fall or 4th quarter. So instead, Tim nicely said we have to raise prices, but REALLY he is saying to us: "Tough..you have to take the hit, we won't.." Besides (as someone else said before on this tread), it would not look good for the next C.E.O. to raise prices as the first decision out the shoot or first at the helm.

So, as usual..we the consumer (peasant) take the hit...will have to try to convince my wife when I have to pay even more for my next Mac Studio...Don't look forward to THAT conversation...🤣

 

[Wasp14]

Apple is a business. Trillion, billion, local mom-and-pop stores, all have the same goal of a business: to make money. To make money they need to raise prices when costs go up. This is normal. The best we can hope for is they don't F us over in other ways making inferior products (same as your local restaurant not reducing portions while raising prices).

As a consumer we can choose to not buy as much when the prices go up. I still use an iPhone 13 and very happy with it. When I need to upgrade I can delay by another year. Complaining about a company trying to make more money is like complaining about water being wet.

They’ll still be making money, just not at the profit margin they had before. I would actually have some sympathy for a mom and pop store, not a trillion dollar business like Apple. I’ll never defend this nonsense, why not excuse them just charging $10,000 for an iPhone next. The only message they’ll understand is people not buying their products in droves, then the prices will come down.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

AI really is ruining everything. All this for what?

 

[JonneyGee]

Apple already raised the price of the Mac minifrom $599 to $799 by eliminating its lowest-tier model.

You’ve said this in multiple articles but it is false as it reads. The $599 Mac Mini being unavailable is not a price increase. Every price point has stayed the same so far.

It is fair to say “the entry price point increased” but saying Apple raised the price simply isn’t true. Please stop with the exaggerated “gotcha” statements like this.

 

[Win$ton l]

Gotta top that 112 billion profit from last year

 

[Smartuser]

Smartuser you may be 'smart' but I do remember the period you are discussing and I know rather more than you think about AI. This is nothing like the period to which you are referring and is driven by a completely different set of conditions. The intimation from someone like yourself that I know nothing is an insult based on absolutely no knowledge of my background. I have intimate knowledge of the current build out of AI infra structure and what is driving our current lack of RAM. I believe that this RAM shortage will abate , as I said, but a consolidation in the AI infrastructure build will occur. I am just not sure of the time line. Maybe you do?

Please stop making assumptions about everyone who posts on this forum. We are not all 'stupid' as I think you are intimating.

Once people resort to going after your name and appeals to authority, you know they have nothing of value left to contribute.

I chose this username as a parody of "Smartphone", and that's all there's to it. Whenever people get very angry here and have nothing better to contribute, they're sure to bring up my username. It's an ad hominem.

"I know rather more than you think" is called an appeal to authority, and the great thing about forums like this is that nobody will ever be able to verify or falsify this. I also know more than you think 🙂. For example, I know that "buildout" and "infrastructure" are one word each.

I'm not making assumptions about everyone, I respond to comments. Some comments here are absolutely brilliant and some not so much. Unsurprisingly, this roughly mirrors the general population. It's possible that some of the lacking comments are written by brilliant people and vice versa.

What's puzzling is that you took my remark about the people with 200% conviction as being about you when it clearly wasn't.

 

[Cape Dave]

Poor Apple. They are getting gauged by memory prices. Oh, right, nevermind! Suck it up, Apple. We did.

 

[unomas77]

Glad I bought a maxed out M5 air three months ago. What I paid will probably be a good price 2 years from now when the M7’s drop.

 

[dominiongamma]

I was putting my plans on hold for an iPad maybe I should grab one? You think the current iPad pros prices will go up?

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

AI really is ruining everything. All this for what?

VC circle jerk

 

[ThailandToo]

As long as they’re honest enough to bring the prices back down when memory becomes sustainable, then I’m happy.

That’s how companies keep raising prices and inflation happens. We have seen it too much lately. They want all the money. It’s for the shareholders, the good guys who make their pay happen! Haha.

 

[dredlew]

In other words, if you were thinking of buying in the next 6 months, probably now is the time.

Well, if they had only released the new Mac Studios already… you know, the machines that offer the most memory and storage. Apple’s pricing for that was already way overpriced.

And they better not put an M5 chip in these anymore if they still plan on releasing the M6 in the fall.

 

[Squidiey]

Well, pass the cost then. People come and go… to Android. It has never been easier than now to find simple, cheap and functional smartphone that works just like any iPhone.

Tim forgot that the market is oversaturated these days with boring slates. And customer loyalty/ecosystem is no longer that relevant

Yeah I'm getting a (used) Pixel phone for GrapheneOS next week

Sorry Apple fanboys, but I'm just saying my opinion

 

[TsMkLg068426]

BREAKING NEWS: 100% Tariffs on Memory. As if there is no other manufacturing company who can produce more Memories.

 

[Squidiey]

Speaking of the RAM prices, it'll be a lesson for (game) devs to actually optimize their games and not relying too much on frame generation and upscaling

 

[dredlew]

Look, would you really want to miss out on all these cool AI videos just to have cheaper Macs?

View attachment 2639176

Is that what you think AI videos look like?

 

[Squidiey]

Apple is a business. Trillion, billion, local mom-and-pop stores, all have the same goal of a business: to make money. To make money they need to raise prices when costs go up. This is normal. The best we can hope for is they don't F us over in other ways making inferior products (same as your local restaurant not reducing portions while raising prices).

As a consumer we can choose to not buy as much when the prices go up. I still use an iPhone 13 and very happy with it. When I need to upgrade I can delay by another year. Complaining about a company trying to make more money is like complaining about water being wet.

How would increasing prices make the company earn money?

like when you open a sandwich restaurant and you sell sandwiches for good prices, everyone will buy from you. BUT when you increase the prices, nobody is buying from you and will look for other restaurants

 

[Eithanius]

There goes jacking up memory for my upcoming M5 Mac Mini...