Live data from Hacker News

Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

reuters.com

241–250 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#241

Expect 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.

One of my 2024 predictions was that Trump would push through the biggest tax increase in history, and that his anti-tax base would cheer it. (Deficit spending doesn't exist and tax increases aren't tax increases if a Republican is in office.)

I thought the scenario would be "we're going to abolish income tax and implement a national sales tax or VAT!" but then the abolishing of income tax part never happens and we just get income tax plus national sales tax plus VAT.

Instead he did it with tariffs. Don't know if it's the biggest tax increase in history but it's pretty sizable, and of course it's regressive.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#242
post #214

Personal 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 the…

When fabs are full, you produce silicon with the highest margins.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#244
post #224

I 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.

[deleted]

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#245
post #224

I 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.

Apple has been weathering this for a while. Maybe it was bad timing with a contract rollover but they seem to have lost their primacy with TMSC.

I’m guessing they are doing their best to maintain margins. I don’t know what Apple’s cash chest has these days but it’s always been enormous.

But they don’t score points in the stock market by having cash on hand. They do get points for operating margin.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#246
post #215

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.

Why would they give away a trillion dollars when their goal is to make a trillion more?

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#247
post #232

Forgive me because I do not understand the supply chain for memory. With Micron et al effectively scalping their customers with an oligopoly on probably the lowest intellectual IP in the chain, does this not guarantee 10 years from now a) We are either overbuilt as hyperscalers cut capex, or b) hyperscalers vertically integrate. Or is it truly that hard to make memory? And if that is not true, perhaps it isn't really…

It all depends on how much they're investing in increasing capacity.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#248
post #224

I 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)

Right — if we can know how long ago the contracts were agreed we can predict how much more the price will have to rise, because 20% sounds like the beginning of the problem.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#249
post #215

Man, 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.

"luxury brand" that offers best base models for bucks than any other windows machine is my favorite luxury. if you compare same $$ priced macbook air to windows laptops, speed and long term reliability difference is few times big.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#250

Mac Studio M3 Ultra: $5299 (+$1300) Oof. That and October delivery. I wonder if the intent here is basically just to signal to the market where the M5 Ultra Studio is going to start.

Has Apple ever lowered the price of a product line?

This is just the new normal.

Post reply on HN