Technology company Apple is implementing a price increase on several of its devices, including Mac computers, iPad tablets and Vision Pro glasses, in response to an unprecedented shortage of memory and storage chips.
Apple indicated in a statement to which EFE had access that the consumer electronics sector “faces an unprecedented challenge” because the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers has caused “an extraordinary increase in demand for memory and storage.”
In that sense, the technology giant noted that “they had never seen the price of a component rise so much and so quickly.”
“Until now we have protected our customers from these increases, but we have reached a point where we are forced to start raising the prices of several products (…) We know that this is not good news and we are working tirelessly to find solutions,” the company concluded.
The price increases, already reflected in Apple’s US online retail store, affect a wide range of its catalogue.
The new MacBook Neo will have a starting price of $699 instead of $599, the Mac Studio with M3 Ultra chip will suffer an increase of $1,300, going from $3,999 to $5,299.
For its part, the 14-inch MacBook Pro will have an increase of $300; the 16-inch MacBook Pro, $500; the MacBook Air, $200; the iPad, $100; the iPad Air, $150; the iPad Mini, $100; the 11-inch iPad Pro, $200; the 13-inch iPad Pro, $200; the iMac, $200; the Mac Studio with M4 Max chip, $500; the HomePod, $100; the HomePod Mini, $30; the Apple TV, $70, and the Vision Pro glasses, $200.
The increase in memory and storage costs has intensified in recent months because artificial intelligence companies are massively purchasing RAM and SSD drives for the data centers that power their models.
In the months leading up to this increase, Apple began adjusting some of its Mac product lines: In March it stopped selling the Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM and subsequently removed the $599 Mac Mini option, so the device now starts at $799 with 512GB of storage.
After the price change, the shares of the bitten apple company fell 5.28%. The increase in the cost of memory and storage occurs in a context of tension in the global semiconductor market, where manufacturers such as Micron have reported strong increases in revenue and profits due to growing demand driven by artificial intelligence.
