Bad news, friends. The $4 trillion giant announced on Thursday it is raising prices across the board. iPads, Macs, even the home gadgets. We are talking an 18% to 33% jump. Refurbished units got hit too.
The MacBook Neo hurts the most. Remember this one? Dropped earlier this year. Touted as the budget Chromebook killer for students. It was $599 then. Now? $699. A solid hundred dollars extra just to boot up.
Tim Cook said it himself earlier this month. He called these hikes “unavoidable.”
Why? Artificial intelligence.
AI eats compute power. That means record demand for memory and storage chips. Supply chains snapped under the weight of big AI data centers. You aren’t just competing with other students for laptops; you’re fighting against Microsoft, Samsung, and the whole industry scrambling for silicon.
Is Apple to blame for the chip crunch?
Not exactly. They aren’t OpenAI or Google, churning out massive generative models day and night. But they still need to build physical goods. Production costs rise when everyone else is bidding up components. Apple cut a deal with Intel in May to handle some chips. Did it smooth the rough edges?
Probably. Revenue still spiked 17% in their latest earnings. So business is good, even if margins are tighter.
“Supply chain shortages have been caused by record-highest demand for memory and storage chips.”
Here is the damage control. A breakdown of what is now more expensive.
What costs more
We did the digging so you don’t have to. These are new base prices.
If you want extra storage? Or that shiny AppleCare+ subscription? You’re paying even more than listed below. These figures compare to the launch price. Not last month. Not a sale price. The original launch sticker.
- MacBook Neo
- Various iPad models
- Selected Mac computers
- Home devices
The era of cheap Apple entry-points is shrinking. You either pay more or wait longer. Which one are you willing to sacrifice?
