Man, if there was anyone that could weather the storm with their thick memory margins (at least on upgrades), it should have been Apple.
Utter planning failure. At the same time they have a quarter trillion in cash sitting.
Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
221–230 of 1001 posts
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#222I 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.
Until China floods the market with their memory which is starting
I'm seeing it with NAND.
Look at the AWS Prime ssds available, and it's a massive list of strange drives you've never heard of, with very few reviews available, almost all using YMTC. The prices aren't fantastic, but given that five sixths of the drive market is straight up gone, I think we need to start reviewing and hoping for the best here, fast. I really hope endurance is indeed as rated, that we aren't about to all get burned incredibly badly for using YMTC chips.
CXMT is indeed starting to get some ram out there. But I am pretty skeptical it's going to make much of a dent. They're currently single digits % of the world ram production. They need to scale a lot to make any dent, and as soon as they do, it feels like there's plenty of people ready to snatch up those supplies.
We need massive massive massive growth in availability and there's no sign that current scale up plans will be at all adequate.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#223Man, if there was anyone that could weather the storm with their thick memory margins (at least on upgrades), it should have been Apple.
capitalism needs its profits. also, apple is a luxury brand first and foremost.
Indeed. Although it's investment that's the problem here, not profit.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#224I thought Apple usually locked in contracts with TSMC and Samsung for years in the future? They should be best positioned to weather this storm. If they are getting buffeted enough to raise prices by this much, things are going to be dire for smaller manufacturers.
Or, this could just be a convenient excuse to get even more margin.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#225How does something with 232 comments and 207 points over just 2 hours get pushed to the 3rd page in hacker news? I’m just really curious how it works, like why would something with so much engagement be push down so quickly?
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#226Nano texture display option also got a price increase. Thankfully, AppleCare+ didn't.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#227WOW. I'm glad I bought the beast yesterday.
The same spec machine I got yesterday is now $2800 more.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#228Personal computing is in shambles right now. It has been for a bit. It was hard to buy video cards for a while, now other components are affected too.
Well, I think from the technology side, the performance and capacity you can get in a personal computer (especially a laptop) is absolutely incredible.
It's just component suppl and that supply is being eaten up and re-diverted to data centers. Prices and availability will be in poor shape. Though I am wondering if GPU compute and memory start to diverge enough that AI companies begin using such specialized chips they stop threatening consumer devices. Maybe that's just wishful thinking.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#229Expect this trend to continue -- firms have delayed price adjustments to avoid retaliation from Trump as doing so would draw attention to Trump's many inflationary policies.
Now all of the businesses who use Apple products as an input are more likely to raise their own prices, etc. This is how inflation happens across the economy. Trade war leads to price increases on Apple's inputs, Apple has to raise prices, etc.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#230I thought Apple usually locked in contracts with TSMC and Samsung for years in the future? They should be best positioned to weather this storm. If they are getting buffeted enough to raise prices by this much, things are going to be dire for smaller manufacturers. Or, this could just be a convenient excuse to get even more margin.
RAM prices started climbing more than 18 months ago. Apple’s contracts are long-term but not that long-term: they probably just expired. (If you assume a 3-year contract, 18 months is how long it would take on average for a specific market shock to hit you)