Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#61

Post by benoau » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

AustinDev wrote: post #12

With memory manufacturers running gross margins in excess of 80% how long until we see upstarts come online to eat away at that or is that unlikely to happen in the near future? I can't imagine a margin that large is allowed to exist unchallenged for more than a few years.

The only challenger is Chinese fabs, but they could just as easily end up banned from western markets.

Immense profits have proven a very endurable shield against upstarts for "big tech" so... we'll probably end up watching regulators attempt to dismantle the RAM cartel throughout the 2040s.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#62

Post by mirashii » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

kamranjon wrote: post #33

Aurornis wrote: post #18

I was considering a 128GB MacBook Pro earlier this week. I priced it out today. The same spec (I think) is $2,000 more expensive. I wasn’t expecting a jump that big. I can’t justify carrying around an $8,000 laptop.

Damn I was considering an m5 max with 128gb just a few days ago and it was 5099 and now it’s 6699 - 1.6k increase - definitely a massive increase and has dissuaded me - this is pretty insane.

There are some Apple resellers that haven't quite caught up to the price increase yet. I just got a 14" M5 Max 128G, 2TB for $5100 off Amazon through Adorama, https://expercom.com/products/16-inch-macbook-pro-with-m5-pr... seems to have them in stock as well.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#63

Post by lapcat » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

Can we now all admit that AI is bad? The technology itself may be neat, but the side effects are killing us. How can AI make computing easier when ironically it's now significantly harder to get computers? AI is driving price increases, unemployment, economic inequality, illiteracy, misinformation, slop on the internet, possibly global warming and water shortages, etc.

Is this really the future we wanted?

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#64

Post by Insanity » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

qaq wrote: post #59

TalkingCodeMonk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that a dozen companies are allowed to buy up the entire global supply of core components, and increase the cost of living for every human on Earth, is full blown dystopian.

If people were not consuming their services they would not be buying inference hardware at this rate so it's pretty much on consumers.

They are reserving future HW productions to meet their hypothetical usage as well. Which is why others (like Apple) can’t reserve it for their future products.

Yet the AI labs are speculating on usage, and spending money from investments without clear revenue path.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#65

Post by brandon272 » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

Was looking at upgrading my M1 Air (16/1TB) to an M5 Air (24/2TB). This price increase changes the time horizon of that upgrade from “now” to “let’s try and get 18-24 more months out of this thing”.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#66

Post by hibikir » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

darioush wrote: post #16

Meanwhile, government will tell you inflation is some number like ~5%

Inflation is an average of many things. Computer components have a huge spike in demand with insufficient increase in supply, which is going to lag for years, so we might as well be buying at auction. It's not a price that flows through the entire economy, like the price of oil.

So yes, inflation on average is nowhere near as high as in RAM prices.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#67

Post by tristor » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

tristor wrote: post #31

The 128GB M5 Max MBP I ordered at launch was $7049 and is now $9849 for the same configuration, that's nearly a 30% price increase and more than $2000 bump. During the same time from launch to now, I have seen local LLMs get significantly better, to the point that I wish more people had hardware like this to be able to localize their workloads. I can't help but think society is moving in the wrong direction with this…

Related, I just realized that Apple uses the same numeric price in multiple regions but just changes the currency. At current price, you'd save $3149 USD flying from London to New York City (minus travel costs) to buy a maxed out 14" MBP vs buying it in London, since the price is 9849 GBP vs 9489 USD...

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#68

Post by m4rtink » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

erxam wrote: post #19

AustinDev wrote: post #12

With memory manufacturers running gross margins in excess of 80% how long until we see upstarts come online to eat away at that or is that unlikely to happen in the near future? I can't imagine a margin that large is allowed to exist unchallenged for more than a few years.

Even the upstarts are cashing in. I believe CXMT is making some serious cash now.

Yep - the incumbent memory cartel bathes in money for a bit longer - then Chinese manufacturers eat their market share while they sleep on their laurels.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#69

Post by alex43578 » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

Matl wrote: post #51

TalkingCodeMonk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that a dozen companies are allowed to buy up the entire global supply of core components, and increase the cost of living for every human on Earth, is full blown dystopian.

That's why some regulation is not the enemy of the people that some want to make it out to be. Unfortunately, I think regulatory capture is so deep now in most places, one can hardly expect anyone to do anything about it.

What’s the proposed regulation that would help here? Price controls? They don’t work, especially in a market like memory.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#70

Post by cmdrmac » Thu, Jun 25, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

erxam wrote: post #10

Just yesterday I saw people saying that Apple wouldn't increase prices until the next refresh. And I agreed! So… holy shit. I think we're going to see even further price increases across the industry. There already were a ton, but it can always get worse, of course. Thank you, OpenAI. What would have we done without your attempts at monopolizing destroying the memory market.

I share the same sentiment. I honestly thought that the price increases would occur as new products rolled out. Seems like with the "back-to-school" promotion right around the corner, Apple expects to sell more machines and find it harder to absorb the higher component price tags. I'm guessing that by changing the prices now, they'll still maintain their profit margins per unit at the expense of total unit sales.