Apple’s online retail store was unexpectedly shut down earlier today, showing only the message “We’ll be right back.” While there were several reasons why Apple could have taken the store down, the reason for the temporary closure will put a bigger strain on your credit card.
Once the Apple online store came back up numerous product price increases were in place.
The new pricing is as follows:
- HomePod mini: $129, up from $99
- HomePod: $349, up from $299
- Apple TV: $199, up from $129
- iPad Air: $749, up from $599
- iPad Pro: $1,199, up from $999
- MacBook Neo: $699, up from $599
- MacBook Air: $1,299, up from $1,099
- MacBook Pro: $1,999 up from $1,699
- iMac: $1,499, up from $1,299
- Mac Studio (M4 Max): $2,499, up from $1,999
- Mac Studio (M3 Ultra): $5,299, up from $3,999
- Vision Pro: $3,699 up from $3,499
As you can see, some of the price hikes are quite large, with the three-year-old Apple TV jumping in price from $129 to $199, the M3 Ultra Mac Studio saw its price increase by $300, the iPad Air up $150, the iPad Pro up by $200, and the recently introduced MacBook Neo seeing its base price jump by $100. The HomePod mini’s price increased the least, going up by $30.
Somewhat unexpectedly, no iPhone models are on the price hike list, nor are any AirPods models, Studio Displays, or accessories like the Apple Pencil.
Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal that Apple price increases are “unavoidable,” due to rising costs for components like SSD and memory costs.
“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” said Cook. “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable.”
Cook told the publication that Apple can no longer absorb the increased prices of memory and storage chips and would be forced to pass at least some of the cost on to consumers.
That time is now.
