Apple lifts prices on MacBook and iPad models as component costs climb

Apple announced Thursday it is increasing prices on select MacBook and iPad models, marking its first direct effort to transfer rising memory and storage expenses to buyers.

Apple implements specific price increases across MacBook and iPad lines. The entry-level MacBook Neo now starts at $699 instead of $599. The 512GB MacBook Air climbs from $1,099 to $1,299, and the 1TB MacBook Pro advances from $1,699 to $1,999. For tablets, the 128GB iPad Air moves from $599 to $749 while the WiFi-only 256GB iPad Pro shifts from $999 to $1,199. iMac to $1499, Touch ID MacBook Neo to $799, Mac Studio up $500 to $2499, 13-inch iPad Pro to $1499. Fully-loaded 16-inch MacBook Pro is now $9999. Base iPad to $449, iPad mini to $599.

The company’s online store went offline for a short time Thursday morning while the adjustments were made.

Tim Cook previously signaled the need for price hikes tied to AI-driven demand. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, CEO Tim Cook said Apple could no longer absorb the full impact of component costs linked to the artificial intelligence surge. "This is a hundred-year flood," Cook told the Journal. "I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years."

Apple attributes the increases to an unprecedented memory and storage surge. "The consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge," the company said in a statement. "The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly." Apple added that it has "reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products," opening the possibility of additional increases later. "We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions," the company said.

Memory prices have quadrupled, boosting suppliers like Micron. Suppliers such as Micron have benefited from the shortage, reporting that revenue in the latest quarter more than quadrupled while gross margin rose from 39% a year earlier to 84.9%, exceeding the margins posted by Nvidia and Meta.

Apple's historical pricing tactics and future expectations shape the response. In the past the company has often discontinued its cheapest configuration, shifted the base model to a higher storage tier, or guided shoppers toward Pro variants and larger capacities. That pattern surfaced in May when Apple discontinued the $599 Mac mini with 256GB of storage, making the entry model $799. Analyst Tarun Pathak of Counterpoint Research projects that elevated component costs could add roughly $200 to the bill of materials for each iPhone and anticipates retail increases of $150 to $200 across the range, skewed toward higher-memory variants.