Bad news, everyone: Apple has raised the price of nearly everything it sells. Every iPad and Mac is now at least $100 more than they were last week. The two exceptions are iPhone and Apple Watch, but don’t expect those prices to survive past September.
We won’t list every price change, but here are the most notable ones.
The entry A16 iPad jumps from $349 to $449 – 29% higher and no longer value territory. The 11-inch iPad Air is up $150 to $749, and at the top end a 13-inch iPad Pro will now set you back a whopping $1,499.
The M4 Mac mini – long one of Apple’s few genuine bargains – climbs $200 to $799. That’s a full third more! Meanwhile the MacBook Neo now starts at $699, up from $599. That’s a shame for a product that flew off the shelves thanks to its palatable pricing.
Even kit that’s barely changed in years and needs very little RAM got hit, with HomePod up to $349 and Apple TV 4K sitting at $199. We won’t run through every model, but the pattern’s clear, and the bargains are gone.
The cause won’t shock anyone watching the component market. The AI boom has sent RAM demand through the roof, and almost everything Apple builds depends on it. What’s more surprising is hearing Apple say so. The company rarely comments on pricing, but it defended itself this time, saying it has “never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly. We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products.”
It’s all technically true. Component prices really are absurd, and Apple’s far from the only company raising prices to cope – it’s a rough time to buy any computer or games console at the moment. But there’s something a little rich about Apple talking up how it’s “shielded” customers while it banks $100bn+ in profit a year. It’d be nice to see Apple take the hit and simply make a few less billions for a while.
The most important part is what hasn’t changed. iPhone and Apple Watch remain untouched for now, but with new models due in under two months, you can guess why. I’d be stunned if both didn’t get a bump of their own when this year’s headliners land. The cost of the upcoming folding iPhone doesn’t bear thinking about at this point.
So what should you do? This might be the year to sit out the upgrade cycle and hope the AI bubble deflates enough to drag prices back down – or that Apple eventually builds its own memory supply and stops being so exposed to the wider market. If you do need a new iPhone, this summer could be the smart time to buy, before the next round of increases arrives and potentially never settles back.