In a move that will hit consumers’ wallets directly, Apple raised prices on iPads and MacBooks on Thursday, citing soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry’s massive datacenter buildout.
The price increase is notable for its scope: the starting price of the Neo, Apple’s lowest-priced laptop, will jump from $599 to $699 — a significant 17% hike just months after its launch. Apple said it could no longer absorb the rising component costs.
Critically, the iPhone is not yet affected. But the company signaled that iPhone price hikes could be next, a prospect that would ripple across the global consumer electronics market given the device’s massive install base. The announcement underscores how the AI revolution’s voracious appetite for advanced chips is creating cost pressures far beyond the data center.
