RAM crisis forces Apple to raise prices on Mac, iPad and home devices

Apple has confirmed a price increase that affects a good part of its catalog. The company attributes this movement to the increase in the cost of memory and storage, two components whose price has skyrocketed in recent months due to the demand generated by data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence.

Apple’s price increase became effective first in the United States, where the company’s own online store was out of service for a few hours while the new amounts were applied. Once restored, the prices shown in dollars now reflect the increases across virtually the entire range of Macs, iPads and home deviceswhile the iPhone family remains, for now, unchanged.

Confirmed prices in the United States

Apple’s most popular products, such as MacBook Neo and the Macbook Airare those that register more moderate increases in absolute terms. The MacBook Neo goes from $599 to $699, while the 13-inch MacBook Air goes from $1,099 to $1,299 and the 15-inch version goes from $1,299 to $1,499.

The jump is more pronounced in higher power equipment. He MacBook Prowhich started at $1,699, is now at $1,999, and the iMac rises from 1,299 to 1,499 dollars. Where the increase becomes more striking is in the mac studio: The configuration with M4 Max chip goes from 1,999 to 2,499 dollars, while the variant with M3 Ultra scales from 3,999 to 5,299 dollars, the largest increase in dollars of all Apple’s price increase confirmed so far.

The iPad range is also not immune to this Apple price increase. He iPad 11 goes from 349 to 449 dollars, the iPad Air The 11-inch version goes from $599 to $749 and the 13-inch version goes from $749 to $949. He iPad Pro The 11-inch model stands at $1,199 compared to the previous $999, and the 13-inch model goes from $1,299 to $1,499. He iPad mini 7 It is the only exception within the table published by Apple, since it appears with a price of 499 dollars compared to the previous 599, a decrease that contrasts with the rest of the range.

In the catalog of home devices, the Apple TV 4K rises from 129 to 199 dollars, the HomePod goes from 299 to 349 dollars and the HomePod mini It stands at $129 compared to the $99 it cost until now.

Does this Apple price increase also reach Spain and Europe?

All the above amounts correspond to the US market and are expressed in dollars, without the company having detailed specific figures for the European market in that first announcement. However, Apple’s own price increase has been applied simultaneously in other marketsand there is already evidence of effective changes in the European store, including the Spanish one.

The price increase went into effect in Apple’s online store on Thursday and applies globally, confirming that it is not an adjustment exclusive to the US market. In the United Kingdom, the MacBook Neo went from 599 to 699 pounds, a practically identical increase in proportion to that registered in dollars.

In the specific case of Spainthe new prices are already reflected in the official Apple store. The MacBook Neo now costs 799 euros compared to the previous 699 euros, while the 13-inch MacBook Air with M5 chip goes up to 1,429 euros from the previous 1,199 euros, and the 15-inch version stands at 1,729 euros compared to the 1,499 euros it had until now.

The rise also reaches the MacBook Pro range: the 14-inch model with M5 chip costs 2,229 euros, the configuration with M5 Pro reaches 2,949 euros and the variant with M5 Max is 4,849 euros. In the 16-inch models, the MacBook Pro with M5 Pro rises to 3,449 euros and the version with M5 Max reaches 5,149 euros.

The rest of the European catalog follows a trend similar to the American one. The Mac Studio with M3 Ultra is the device that increases the most in percentage, with an increase of 1,500 euros, which is around 31% more than its previous price. Within the iPad rangethe basic model is the one that increases the most percentage-wise, with an increase of close to 32%, while the Pro models are the ones that increase the most in absolute terms. Among home products, the Apple TV 4K once again leads the rise, both in quantity and percentage.

A company that recognizes the pressure of components

Apple has publicly acknowledged the magnitude of this price increase. A company spokesperson noted that the rapid expansion of AI data centers has generated an extraordinary increase in demand for memory and storage, and that they have never seen a price increase for a component so large and so fast. The company has also indicated that it had managed to protect its customers from these increases until now, but that the time to start transferring them to the final prices has already arrived.

For now, neither in the United States nor in Europe has a calendar been confirmed for these prices to return to their previous levels in case the memory market stabilizes.. The company has not yet applied any changes to the price of the iPhone, Apple Watch or AirPods, although the pressure on memory components affects the entire industry equally and additional adjustments are not ruled out in the coming months.

What is clear with this price increase by Apple is that not even a company with the negotiating weight of the Cupertino firm has been able to avoid passing on the increased cost of memory and storage to the final buyer, both in the United States and in the European markets where the new amounts have already been confirmed.