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Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

reuters.com

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Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#131

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.

The cure for high prices is high prices. This increase in demand is encouraging economization. Factories which make components are trying to operate for more hours. Producers who haven’t gotten into RAM may try it out. Large companies like Apple may test alternative suppliers. Consumers who don’t really need an upgrade will wait, allowing others who need it to buy one.

Unfortunately, RAM is more like a taxi than an umbrella.

> Anyone who’s spent any time in New York City knows that when it begins to rain, two things happen immediately: It becomes easier to buy an umbrella and it becomes harder to hail a cab. As soon as the first few drops fall, people appear on the street selling cheap umbrellas, while a lucky few pedestrians occupy all the available cabs.

http://shirky.com/2001/01/

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#132
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I was one of those people. Did not see this coming. The situation is truly dire out there.

I thought they would but not this fast.

If anything they seem to be ones who managed to delay increasing prices more than the rest.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#135
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also inexplicably snuck in a 50% increase for the TV 4k, just to be extra greedy. Treat yoself Tim Apple!

The majority of the component cost in the AppleTV is likely the storage so that's a big hit.

Having the ethernet port and Thread radio gated behind the 128gb model is obnoxious.

I have three Apple TVs that are ethernet connected and form the backbone of my home's Thread network, but they have <5 apps installed and would do fine with 32gb rather than 128gb. (And in fact, they are all currently 32gb models from the previous generation where those did include ethernet.)

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#136
The Studio I looked at yesterday jumped from $2600 to $3400 (30%). I was saving for it and was about 1/2 way there. I was expecting these increases in 2027, so planned to buy late in the year. Apple moved faster than I expected after the price increase announcements.

On the flip side, this makes PC options with GPUs more attractive.

I’m interested in running local AI models.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#137

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

Unfortunately all govt. bodies have been tampering with the economic indicators due to political pressure.

Small tweaks to macro-economic calculations, can turn into a huge divergence very fast. A one degree error in a compass read seems small...but after a thousand miles, your destination is history.

Tis reaching (or reached) a stage where mostly everyone is blind as to where the economy actually is.

Mega private companies now hire stat firms to run such studies in-house, ignoring gov data[1]

[1] https://rsmus.com/insights/economics/the-rise-of-private-lab...

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#138

I have a suspicion these new prices will stick around, even after the RAM shortage ends. Speaking of which, what's the timeline of the RAM shortage ending? I have no sense for whether it is going to be (for example) 6 months or 3 years.

The new Xbox CEO said recently they are expecting storage prices to be 5x what they were late 2025 by late 2027. And that RAM should be similar.

Anyone making hardware is having a rough time. Like Valve who had to release their new PC at around 40% more expensive than what they originally wanted.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#140
I suspect that these prices are going to seriously dent sales. RAM is getting crushed. I bet the next step is going to be dumb terminals and centralisation onto all the hardware that the cloud companies bought up for AI and found wasn't possible to get any ROI out. Bezos was all over that already.

We are truly entering the dark ages of personal computing.

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