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Top Stories: Massive Apple Price Increases, iOS 27 Beta 2, and More

AriaAmaris said:
Apple had no problem ripping us off with memory upgrades and now they are passing on the increased costs on to us in order to keep their gravy train. Apple deserves every bit of this criticism. Sales should plummet.
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Will you be exercising your agency and send Apple a strong message by immediately stop purchasing Apple products and from this point on only purchase computers/phones/tablets from an Apple competitor?
 
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nt5672 said:
Just the opposite in fact. Stupid everyday people think they can become geniuses using AI.

Most everyday people were never taught critical thinking and logic. Previously they consumed and believed exactly what the government told them.

Now, they will consume and believe exactly what AI tells them. The masters have changed from government to greedy corporations. But most everyday people are still just as uninformed as always.
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The masters; stupid everyday people; greedy corps; uniformed; think they are geniuses; never taught how to think. believe what they are told.

Critical thinking
 
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Don't worry, when the prices fall back down in perhaps a few years time, it will be so nice to see Apple slashing it's prices for us all 🙂
 
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WylyQuimby said:
Memory and storage prices have increased 400-500%. Not sure what everyone expects. Micron, Samsung, and Hynix are making bank at the expense of everyone. It was only 20 years ago that they were convicted of collusion and price fixing.
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With so many "shortages" these past couple years (gas, beef, eggs, now chips), there is one thing in common -- high prices but no sign of shortages! Anyone see any "Out of gas" signs at gas stations lately? How about news that, say, Apple/Dell/HP has to postpone the latest/greatest because there aren't any chips? Eggs -- that was supposedly due to Bird Flu and the shortages we did see on the shelf seemed to be from people hoarding. Beef prices doubled but plenty of beef at the meat counter!

In all these cases, you know who banked record profits? THOSE COMPANIES IN THOSE INDUSTRIES! From egg and cattle farms to oil companies and now to not just the chip makers but the companies that use them, marking up their products much higher to fleece the consumer.

I honestly feel these increases are manufactured and we the consumers are being told it's all because of AI.
 
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I find it ironic that Apple is franticly scrambling to embrace AI, which has caused mass exodus from their company and will totally crush sales probably.

A sound business plan.
 
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Flight Plan said:
Calm down, you haven't wasted anything. If I had an AWU1, I'd still use it. I'd use it for when I'm out in the garden or under the car. I generally don't need AI to help me water my tomato and pepper plants!

Hey, it's fun to use hyperbole whenever we're mad about something. "Main perpetrators"...we can all do that! Seriously, name-calling like that is pretty much a national sport...anywhere.

I know one young person who's entire job is based on using AI and incorporating it into software products.

While this is certainly possible, it's also possible that Apple would reduce prices when the price of memory (or whatever) goes down.

But in general, you're right. The high cost of memory is probably NOT going to decline anytime soon. Memory is used for memory AND hard drives (SSDs). Demand is high and supply is low. If prices didn't go up, we would just end up with disruptive shortages, rather than demand attenuated based on what people are willing to (or not willing to) pay.

It's hard to build even one fab anywhere in the world, so prices are going to stay high until supply can be increased.

Capitalism is all about buyer and seller AGREEING to a price, and both buyer and seller feel that they have benefited more from the transaction than what they gave up. You might not like the high price of something, but if prices aren't being dictated by some government entity and you still AGREE to pay it, then you are participating in Capitalsim.

Unfortunately, a lot of people feel exactly that way.

In order for a company to not only be successful, but to have access to financial and credit markets down the road, they NEED to grow their profit margins. And they need to grow those margins exponentially, quarter after quarter.

If they don't, then they're just "so-so", and the biggest financial institutions basically ignore them.

"...way too high for most people outside the USA."

You say that like it's a bad thing. It is neither bad nor good. It's just a fact, and it has always been so.

It has ALWAYS been the case, from the very first Apple product. It has ALWAYS been true that "most people" can't afford Apple products.

Apple has never been "the affordable brand". Why do you think they should be?


According to the AI search results I just got, it can take 1 to 3 years just to get through regulatory and administrative hurdles. THEN your 3-5 year construction phase starts. And everything stops when they find the rare "snow thrush" lays eggs 50 miles away but in the same state.

It can easily take 10 years or more to build any fab plant anywhere in the USA.

I like that. I have a big box of watches somewhere around here. They all need batteries. Maybe I can get a couple of them cleaned up and re-energized.

There's always somebody willing to buy a cheap device.

I hear Pixel phones take really good photos. But over the years, I've always upgraded my iPhone based mostly on the quality of the camera. I went from iPhone 6 to 12, then from 12 to 16. And now I'm waiting to see what Fold has to offer. But I probably won't upgrade to it if it doesn't have a good camera.

People love to use inflammatory language when describing something they don't like. It's natural, and I do it too. It's a sport!

You should look up the meaning of the words "perpetrator", "palpable", and "hypocritical".

But hey, you're pretty good at verbal hyperbole. I respect that.

And no, none of this is "Apple's fault". Puh-lease! 😉

It's not supposed to be pretty. Or ugly. It just is.

"Don't buy unless absolutely necessary, and then buy the cheapest stuff you find." This is not a bad reasoning. But it's not for everybody. For example,

I'll upgrade my iPhone when a camera significantly better than my current iPhone 16s camera becomes available. Is this "absolutely necessary" for me? No. So your strategy doesn't apply to me.

And for the second part: "buy the cheapest stuff you find." Well, the cheapest I can find won't meet my requirements for camera quality or the apps I can run. So THAT strategy doesn't apply to me either.

And I absolutely do want to reward capitalism! Capitalism ensures that we have good (or even excellent products) available, and that we are free to buy them if we want them.

Capitalism is indicated by buyer and seller FREELY engaging in a transaction. And property ownership. As the buyer, I own my money. As the seller, a manufacturer has ownership of the thing they want to sell.

Both parties will come away feeling that they got the better deal in the arrangement.

The buyer feels he or his situation is made better by the product he purchased than by the money he had and gave up to purchase it. This is certainly how I felt whenever I've bought an Apple product in the past!

The seller feels he or his situation is made better by the money he received than by the product that he made and gave up to get the money. I can't speak for Apple (and in a couple of cases, Verizon too), but they keep selling me products, so they MUST feel bettered by our transactions.

All I can say is YAY CAPITALISM!
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I am firstly NOT going to bother to delete your biography of replies to single the one to me out, but just to say why do you deny the 'FACT' Apple is instigating Ai onto MILLIONS of devices that will all use Data Centres stuffed full of RAM from the RAM cartel of America, and THE main cause of price rises across the board... or do you believe Apple are being incredibly greedy and profiteering, or you do not understand how Ai works, or are you an Apple share holder desperately trying to avert blame from Apple for any of this to protect your return on investment? Going to be one of those.
 
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Pezimak said:
I am firstly NOT going to bother to delete your biography of replies to single the one to me out, but just to say why do you deny the 'FACT' Apple is instigating Ai onto MILLIONS of devices that will all use Data Centres stuffed full of RAM from the RAM cartel of America, and THE main cause of price rises across the board... or do you believe Apple are being incredibly greedy and profiteering, or you do not understand how Ai works, or are you an Apple share holder desperately trying to avert blame from Apple for any of this to protect your return on investment? Going to be one of those.
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I think I need to use AI just to summarize Flight Plan's novel down into a story summary! He's making me use AI! 🙂
 
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oldMacGenius said:
If you’re in the US, Target is still charging the old prices.
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Both the 64G and 128G models both show completely sold out via any method of delivery or pickup.

BestBuy is screwing me as I ordered a 128G Ethernet one minutes after the price hikes, and they were in stock. Now, days later, my order sits at "preparing" and BB has matched Apple's increased prices now so I'm basically screwed.
 
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theappleloverguy said:
I have 16 Pro Max 512gb Black with $695 trade in value, and a $150 apple gift card. Wonder if i should shoot the bag now with the 17 Pro Max or take the bullet with the 18 Pro Max instead.
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Why upgrade. Is there something the current stuff you own can not do, that you actually need? You save the most money by doing nothing. unless you have some pressing need.
 
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When they finally turned on Siri AI 3 years late and a trillion dollars over budget the first question Tim asked was... How can Apple make more money? and here we are
 
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ChrisA said:
Why upgrade. Is there something the current stuff you own can not do, that you actually need? You save the most money by doing nothing. unless you have some pressing need.
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Mainly the 12gb of Ram and small dynamic island. 16 Pro Max is overheating quite a bit and I'm thinking of downgrading to the smaller 6.3 footprint now that I think about it.
 
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DEMinSoCAL said:
With so many "shortages" these past couple years (gas, beef, eggs, now chips), there is one thing in common -- high prices but no sign of shortages! Anyone see any "Out of gas" signs at gas stations lately? How about news that, say, Apple/Dell/HP has to postpone the latest/greatest because there aren't any chips? Eggs -- that was supposedly due to Bird Flu and the shortages we did see on the shelf seemed to be from people hoarding. Beef prices doubled but plenty of beef at the meat counter!

In all these cases, you know who banked record profits? THOSE COMPANIES IN THOSE INDUSTRIES! From egg and cattle farms to oil companies and now to not just the chip makers but the companies that use them, marking up their products much higher to fleece the consumer.

I honestly feel these increases are manufactured and we the consumers are being told it's all because of AI.
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This! 100% this.
 
Obviously, sales will drop, and many people will keep their perfectly capable devices for a few more years. That’s going to hurt Apple badly, as a huge part of its profits relies on people upgrading their devices regularly.


The worst part is that we all know that once the RAM shortage is over, prices won’t go back down. These prices will just become the new normal.
 
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I held on to my mid-2012 MacBook Pro from 2013 to 2023, but upgraded my M2 MBA to the M5 MBA a few months ago expecting price hikes like this. Hopefully it lasts me until 2036... possibly earlier, if the AI bubble pops
 
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My next machine will run Linux anyway… in 2010 i switched from linux ubuntu to a mbp running snow leopard, and 2028 will be the end of my story with apple.
 
Piggie said:
The biggest "finger to consumers" is increasing the prices of refurbished items that may have been made a year+ ago, and yet have magically got more expensive for no reason whatsoever.

Above all else you may be able to justify in one way of another, this is unforgivable and simply disgusting, and shows nothing but contempt for loyal consumers.
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Aren't they worth more now though?
 
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chuckles235 said:
More like a generalized marker of how much they’ll need to recover off the backs of their customers
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With that logic, when market cap goes up - they decrease their prices🤣 didn’t get the memo for Apple dropping their line up pricing by 300% across the last few years
 
sebulator said:
Tim Cook is the worst manager. Instead of foreseeing anything, he decided to keep Wall Street happy and punish consumers with crippled specs and price hikes up to $1,300 on a Mac Studio, it's absolutely insane. This will kill consumer demand for sure, I needed to update my hardware this year. I'm forced to wait until they come back to normal prices, if ever.
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You'll be waiting to infinity and beyond. See the new Toy Story movie at a theater near you.
 
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