Apple confirms product price increases as memory costs rise

Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned that product prices will rise as the supply of memory and storage chips tightens and costs climb. He said the company has tried to shield customers but that increases have become unavoidable. No timetable or specific product list was offered, though the new lineup expected in September could be a likely moment for higher prices, and Macs and iPads might see increases even sooner.

The company has already adjusted pricing for one product: the base Mac Mini moved from $599 with an M4 chip, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage to a $799 starting model with the same chip and memory but 512GB of storage. The pressure stems from AI demand, which has driven much of the available DRAM and NAND flash into enterprise systems, and from major memory suppliers reallocating capacity toward higher-margin server components.

Apple’s push on AI features such as Siri and Apple Intelligence also raises memory needs. Models like the iPhone 17 Pro, Pro Max and iPhone Air ship with 12GB of RAM.

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