Apple raises iPad and MacBook prices as memory chip costs surge

Bernstein managing editor. senior analyst Mark Newman speaks on the future of Apple intelligence after the release of their new Siri AI on The Claman Countdown.

Appleon Thursday announced that it raised prices on its iPad. MacBook devices because of rising memory and chip costs amid the rapid buildout of the AI industry.

The tech giant excluded its primary cash cow, the iPhone, from the price hikes but will raise prices on the other devices as Apple said it couldn't afford to continue insulating consumers from the mounting cost ofmemory. storage chips.

"We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly," Apple said in a statement. "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 the iPad. Mac."

The price hikes show that even the world's most valuable consumer electronics company. its strong supply chain relationships are not immune to the surge in prices for memory chips that has dampened the outlook for smartphone and PC sales.

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Apple is raising prices on MacBooks and iPads, as well as other devices, amid mounting memory chip costs.(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Memory chipmakers such as Micron have moved to prioritize orders fromAI chipmakerslike Nvidia in recent months, which has helped them earn record profits but has constrained supplies available for the makers of electronic devices. prompted them to raise prices.

Apple's Neo, the company's lowest priced laptop that aims to compete with affordable versions ofWindows. Chromebook laptops, is one of the products that will be subject to the price hikes and will go from $599 to $699 months after launch.

The company also raised the price of the MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes of storage from $1,099 to $1,299; while theMacBook Prowith 1 terabyte of storage price rose from $1,699 to $1,999;. the price of the iPad Air with 128 gigabytes of storage rose from $599 to $749.

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Apple also hiked prices for both versions of its HomePod smart speaker and Apple TV set-top box.

The announcement comes after Apple CEO Tim Cook toldThe Wall Street Journalin an interview earlier this month. "price increases are unavoidable."

"We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us,. we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable," Cook said in the interview.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down on September 1.(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Cook also said on a late April conference call with analysts that. "Where we don't give color beyond June, I can tell you that beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business."

Rivaldevice makersmay be forced to raise prices even more sharply than Apple. whose deep supplier ties have cushioned it from the full hit, several analysts said.

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"The memory environment is tough. remains structurally tough for the foreseeable future," said Ben Bajarin, CEO of technology consulting firm Creative Strategies.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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