Apple's price hike for iPhone, iPad, and Mac is reportedly imminent

Apple-CEO Tim Cook officially confirmed last week that a price increase due to the DRAM crisis would be “unavoidable.” However, the CEO did not comment on exactly when or by how much prices would rise. While this price increase is expected to affect the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, it remains unclear whether every single product will become more expensive.

Analysts expect that even the most affordable iPhone 18 Pro could cost $1,399, Apple is reportedly not planning to wait until the launch of the next iPhone generation to raise prices. According to Bloomberg editor Mark Gurman, the announced price increases are “imminent,” because otherwise it wouldn’t have made sense for Apple to warn customers in advance. Mark Gurman believes that Apple could use this year’s “Back to School” promotion to raise the list prices of products, which could result in slightly smaller price increases, at least for high school and college students.

For anyone looking to buy a new iPhone, iPad, or Mac, it might therefore be worth taking advantage of a promotion rather than waiting. It remains to be seen just how significant the price increases will be, not least because Apple is already charging very high surcharges for RAM and SSD upgrades – prices that, even during the DRAM crisis, are far above market prices for comparable products. At $400 for 16 GB of additional RAM or $1,200 for 4 TB of SSD storage, Apple’s prices are two to three times higher than on the open market.