Bad news for iPhone and Mac fans: Apple CEO Tim Cook has made clear statements in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "Price increases are inevitable," said the Apple chief. Cook explained the reasons: "We are doing our best not to pass on the hefty increases to customers. We try to protect our customers from the price hikes. But the situation is currently unsustainable." According to macwelt.de, citing the Wall Street Journal, Apple is already paying significantly more for SSD storage and RAM. In the fall, when the new generations of iPhone, iPad, and Macs are released, the manufacturer will pass on some of these costs to customers.
AI boom drives chip prices up
The background: The boom in artificial intelligence has prompted tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to invest heavily in server hardware. This leads to a shortage and higher prices for memory chips for consumer devices like smartphones and laptops.
Apple has already responded creatively to rising costs several times in the past. With the iPhone 12, for example, a hidden price increase was introduced by offering the smaller Mini model at the price of its predecessor – the regular iPhone 12 then cost around 100 euros more.
Apple is also currently using tricks: With the Mac Mini M4, the cheapest variant with 256 GB of storage was completely eliminated. The entry-level price is now 949 euros. Apple customers should therefore prepare for further price adjustments in the fall.
