Apple has raised prices for its iPads and MacBooks, citing increased costs for memory and storage chips driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) data center expansion.
The price hikes do not impact the iPhone, but the company’s lowest-priced laptop, the Neo, increased from $599 to $699.
“We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple stated. “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, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.”
According to updated prices on the corporate website, the MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes of storage increased from $1,099 to $1,299, while the MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage changed from $1,699 to $1,999.
The iPad Air with 128 gigabytes of storage rose from $599 to $749. Financial adjustments were also made to both versions of the HomePod smart speaker and the Apple TV set-top box.
Following the announcement, Apple shares decreased by nearly five percent, while competitor Dell dropped over eight percent.
In April, Apple management reported that existing inventories maintained gross margins above market expectations, but noted that rising memory costs would impact profitability by the end of June.
The company has not shared additional strategies beyond the price adjustments. “We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions,” the company stated.
Market researchers expect price adjustments for the iPhone in the near future. Nabila Popal, a senior research director at IDC, stated that the current adjustments were timed strategically ahead of the autumn iPhone launch to separate the price changes from the product introduction headlines.
