As an app developer, having to eat an ever increasing Mac hardware cost upfront may push people like me to just focus on Android.
You think the situation is better on Android? The margins for Android OEMs are even thinner.
Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
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Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#272As an app developer, having to eat an ever increasing Mac hardware cost upfront may push people like me to just focus on Android.
Except you only need to eat that hardware cost once a decade.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#273Devs reading this, please start making your apps less memory hungry. All the people running any computer appreciate.
Message recieved, porting my webapp to Electron ASAP.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#274Some unc perspective: I paid ~$6,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars for a computer in 1996. Today, I can get the same power in a $6 single board computer. A powerful modern mini PC starts at ~$600.
However painful these price hikes are, and they are painful, it is worth remembering that computing has become incredibly ubiquitous and cheap.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> Inflation is an average of many things What other things have been getting cheaper in the last ~2 years? And as it's an average of many things, it's quite easy to change which 'things' it is calculated upon to show whatever number is more convenient politically.
Turns out, BLS actually lists this stuff when they release CPI figures.
Used cars & trucks; butter; cheese; flour; chicken; textbooks; drugs are all down since ~2 years ago. Not an exhaustive list!
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#276Nano texture display option also got a price increase. Thankfully, AppleCare+ didn't.
Hard to make a case that's related to increased RAM or SSD component prices.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Apple is notorious for their prices being extremely stable for a given SKU. If anything, this is Apple getting out ahead of where they expect memory prices to be long-term, so they can rip off the band-aid once and don’t have to do it again.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#278WOW. I'm glad I bought the beast yesterday . The same spec machine I got yesterday is now $2800 more.
Mac Studio? I'm on an M2 Max and looks like I'll be holding onto this thing for a few more generations.
my M1 mac studio from 2022 is still going strong and i can't see a reason to replace it in the next few years anyway
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#279I 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)
That's a double edged sword. Assuming it's an 18 month contract, even when ram prices do go back to "normal" it's a year and a half until Apple has savings to pass onto to customers.
Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
#280I 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.
The longer you lock in contracts into the future, the more expensive they get. And Apple also doesn’t want to lock themselves into volume commitments for specific production lines and at certain prices that might not make sense anymore a year or two down the line. So even Apple has limits to how much long-term contracts make sense.