Apple raises Mac and iPad prices as memory costs climb
Apple increased prices on Macs, iPads and other devices, with CEO Tim Cook telling The Wall Street Journal that higher memory costs are to blame.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
2 min read
Apple has raised prices across a broad slice of its hardware lineup, pushing some Mac models hundreds of dollars higher. The increases matter because they show the consumer impact of a memory shortage that Ars Technica says has been weighing on the tech industry for months.
The entry-level MacBook Neo is now $699, up from $599, according to Ars Technica. The iMac that previously sold for $1,299 now costs $1,499, while the M5 MacBook Pro has risen from $1,699 to $1,999.
The largest listed increase is at the top of the Mac lineup. Ars Technica reported that the M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 96GB of memory now costs $5,299 after a $1,300 price increase.
Apple also raised iPad prices by $100 to $200, depending on the model, according to Ars Technica. Smaller increases hit products including the Apple TV and HomePod, while iPhone prices have not changed for now.
Cook points to memory costs
Apple CEO Tim Cook blamed the increases on memory prices in an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” Cook told the Journal. “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.”
Ars Technica linked the higher prices to a broader shift in the chip market. As spending on artificial intelligence has climbed, chipmakers have put more attention on higher-margin memory for data centers rather than memory used in consumer devices, the publication reported.
That shift has helped create supply constraints and higher memory prices across the technology market, according to Ars Technica. The pressure has raised prices for consumer electronics and has also led some products to disappear from sale.
Apple had already shown signs of adjusting to the shortage before the latest round of price increases. In March, Ars Technica reported that Apple quietly removed a 512GB-memory configuration of the M3 Ultra Mac from its store.
The new pricing marks a return to a familiar sore point for some longtime Apple buyers. Ars Technica noted that customers who remember Apple’s RAM pricing during the PowerPC era may see echoes of that period in the current increases.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.