Apple Hikes Prices on Core Product Lines, Spares iPhone Amid AI-Fueled Component Cost Crisis

This past Thursday, Apple implemented price increases across a swath of its most popular, top-selling products, including Mac desktops, MacBook laptops, iPads, and HomePod smart speakers.

Ahead of the rollout, Apple’s official online store went temporarily offline for a short window early Thursday, before relaunching with the new adjusted pricing updated across its catalog. According to analysis from The Wall Street Journal, Mac models saw price jumps ranging from 15% to 20%, while iPads saw steeper increases of 15% to 25%.

Notably, the only major Apple product line excluded from this round of hikes is the iPhone — the company’s highest-grossing and most profitable offering.

Apple has attributed the price adjustments to an unprecedented, AI-driven surge in global memory and storage component costs that has disrupted the entire tech industry. The announcement comes just one week after outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal that planned “price increases are unavoidable,” and that the tech giant was “doing [its] best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us.”

Though Apple worked for months to absorb extra costs to shield consumers from price jumps, Cook noted the situation has become unsustainable. Calling the current component cost crisis a once-in-a-generation event, Cook told the outlet: “This is a hundred-year flood. I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.”

Apple is not the only major tech firm passing higher costs onto customers. Microsoft recently raised prices for its Surface line of laptops, and the company confirmed Thursday that it will implement price increases for its Xbox game consoles starting August 1.