Hold on to your pocketbook, as Apple price increases are “unavoidable,” says current Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook told The Wall Street Journal that Apple can no longer absorb the increased prices of memory and storage chips and will be forced to pass at least some of the cost on to consumers.
“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.”
While Cook did not specify which products will receive price hikes, nor did he mention the amount of the price hikes, many believe the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, expected to hit store shelves in September, could be more expensive than the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Prices on iPads and Macs could see increases in the near future.
Apple recently eliminated its lowest-tier Mac mini model, effectively increase the computer’s base price from $599 to $799. Several higher-tier Mac mini and Mac Studio options have also been dropped from the lineup.
Apple and several other computer and electronics firms have been forced to deal with ever-rising prices for memory chips and other components. Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Dell, and other companies have already raised prices on several of their products.
The higher costs are due to memory manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron redirecting their production efforts toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI servers. That decision has left mobile DRAM in extremely short supply. Although those memory manufacturers are adding capacity to manufacture more chips, those new facilities will prioritize server chips. Meanwhile, demand for consumer-device chips is expected to continue to outpace supply, leaving Apple and other companies scrambling to secure enough memory for their devices.
The shortage comes as Apple is looking to increase the amount DRAM in its devices to support new AI features, like iOS 27’s Siri AI. “There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” Cook told The Wall Street Journal.
Research firm TechInsights recently claimed that Apple will need to increase the price of the iPhone 18 Pro by around $270 to keep its existing profit margin.
Cook said that Apple will is its cash reserves to increase its memory supply, but did not provide any details on what that looks like.
Cook likened the perfect storm of rising costs and memory shortages to a hundred-year flood. “I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years,” he said.
One thing Apple won’t do to deal with the rising cost of memory and storage is to manufacture its own memory chips. “We can’t do everything,” Cook said. “We know what we’re good at.”
