Mac and iPad prices up by as much as 25%. iPhone untouched. For now.
On June 25, 2026, Apple’s online store went dark for a few minutes. When it came back, the price tags had changed.
For the first time in the company’s history, Apple passed memory and storage cost increases directly to consumers. Mac and iPad lines across the board — up to 25%. Tim Cook had warned it was coming. What surprised the market was how aggressive the numbers turned out to be.
“We have never seen component costs rise this much, this fast,” Apple said in a statement. Cook himself described the situation to the Wall Street Journal as “a once-in-a-hundred-years flood.” His words, not ours.
Why Now
The culprit is AI infrastructure. The explosive expansion of data centers — training and running large language models at scale — has created unprecedented demand for DRAM and NAND flash. Memory prices have quadrupled over the past three quarters as suppliers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron redirect capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI servers. Consumer devices went to the back of the line.
Apple had been absorbing those costs internally — through its supply chain leverage, inventory buffers, and margin management. That strategy hit its limit. Micron, which reported record gross margins above 80% immediately before Apple’s announcement, confirmed that supply constraints will extend well beyond 2027.
iPhone prices were left untouched this time. But Apple made no promises about what comes next. Analysts at Counterpoint Research estimate each iPhone could absorb an additional $200 in component costs, and IDC expects all new iPhone models to ship with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence — a spec bump that doesn’t come free.
The Numbers
| Product | Old Price | New Price | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| MacBook Neo (base) | $599 | $699 | +$100 |
| MacBook Air 512GB | $1,099 | $1,299 | +$200 |
| MacBook Pro 14″ 1TB | $1,699 | $1,999 | +$300 |
| MacBook Pro 16″ | $2,499 | $2,999 | +$500 |
| Mac Studio M4 Max | $1,999 | $2,499 | +$500 |
| Mac Studio M3 Ultra | $3,999 | $5,299 | +$1,300 |
| iPad (base) | $349 | $449 | +$100 |
| iPad mini | $499 | $599 | +$100 |
| iPad Air 128GB | $599 | $749 | +$150 |
| iPad Pro 256GB | $999 | $1,199 | +$200 |
| Apple Vision Pro | $3,499 | $3,699 | +$200 |
| iPhone (all models) | unchanged | unchanged | — |
Korean won pricing pending official update at apple.com/kr
Editor’s Note
Apple holding the line on prices through a pandemic, a trade war, and years of supply chain disruption — then moving all at once — tells you something about how severe the memory situation actually is. This isn’t a tariff adjustment or a currency hedge. It’s a structural shift in the component market that Apple, for the first time, couldn’t quietly absorb.
The MacBook Neo going from $599 to $699 matters most. That was Apple’s entry point into the Mac ecosystem — the machine designed to bring in first-time buyers. At $699, that pitch gets harder to make.
If iPhone prices follow — and most analysts expect they will — the question becomes whether Apple’s ecosystem lock-in is strong enough to absorb the sticker shock. Based on history, probably yes. But this is the first real test of that thesis at this scale.
June 25, 2026 · Prices in USD · apple.com/kr for Korean won pricing
iPhone lineup excluded from this round of increases
Apple stock fell approximately 4.8% on the day of announcement
