Quick Summary
Apple's outgoing CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that the company will have to raise its prices.
The ongoing RAM crisis continues to drive up costs for components, and so Apple will have to pass on the increases to its customers.
Tim Cook will soon step down as Apple CEO, with engineer John Ternus set to take over in September, but it seems one of his last jobs before he goes is to confirm a price hike on Apple products.
"Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," Cook told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."
No other details were shared, including which products that are to be affected, but the move always seemed inevitable.
Component costs have risen to record highs in the last year or so, with the prices of RAM and storage in particular being three to four times more than they were previously.
And sadly, while the focus of the recent WWDC 26 was mainly dedicated to the upcoming launch of Siri AI, it and other AI systems are largely to blame.
Why is AI to blame for the RAM crisis?
The global RAM shortage – often referred to as "RAMageddon" – has been enacted by the rapid rise of AI data centres. They require vast amounts of RAM chips, and so AI companies have been snaffling them up faster than an anteater at a picnic.
It has had a knock-on affect with other components too, including SSD storage, and so many tech products have seen price increases or even cancellations this year. Analytics firm CCS Insights even believes we'll see the mobile phone market shrink by 15% by the end of 2026 as a result.
Apple was initially thought to have safe guarded itself by stockpiling chips prior to the crisis, but is clearly running out of available hardware. And as Cook has confirmed, it will now pass on its costs to consumers.
This could mean that the expected iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max models will be more expensive than their predecessors when they arrive in September. The much-rumoured foldable iPhone Ultra was already expected to be in the $2,000 - $2,500 category.
However, the price increases could start sooner, with existing devices seeing big hikes.
So, if you are after an Apple product and not waiting for its fall (autumn) releases, you should consider taking the plunge now. Or better still, wait until next week and see what the Amazon Prime Day sale has to offer.
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