Apple price – Apple briefly took its online store down Thursday morning and then restarted with higher prices on many Mac, iPad, and HomePod devices—yet the company left the iPhone out of the price hikes. The move follows Tim Cook’s warning that planned increases are unavoi
Thursday morning, Apple’s online store briefly disappeared. When it came back, the price tags had changed—on a wide set of products that have been among the company’s strongest sellers.
The update hit Mac desktops and MacBooks, iPads, and HomePod devices, with Mac computers priced up by 15% to 20% and iPads up by 15% to 25%. HomePod and related products also rose, while the lineup clearly left one of Apple’s biggest money-makers untouched: the iPhone.
Apple’s stated reason is stark. The company is citing skyrocketing global AI-driven memory and storage costs—an input crunch that has rippled from chipmakers to data centers, and now into consumer electronics.
The pricing shift lands just a week after outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal that planned “price increases are unavoidable.” Cook said Apple was “doing [its] best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us. ” but he warned the pressure was no longer manageable. “The situation has become unsustainable,” Cook said.
In the same interview, Cook used language that sounded less like standard corporate budgeting and more like a break from normal reality. “This is a hundred-year flood,” he explained. “I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.”
Still, the iPhone’s absence from Thursday’s hikes has been the most noticeable contradiction for consumers watching where Apple would land. Even as Apple updates prices on other devices, the company’s most successful and profitable product remains unaffected.
The broader market mood wasn’t upbeat. Shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) were down 5.2% in afternoon trading at the time of this writing. Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) was down over 3%.
Apple’s move comes as the industry deals with a hardware cost surge tied to AI demand. Prices for memory and storage chips have quadrupled over the past three quarters as a result of the demand for AI servers, Counterpoint Research said, according to CNBC.
That same AI-driven backlash—centered on the energy use and cost of AI data centers—has continued to spill into consumer products. For many shoppers. the hikes are becoming another sign that artificial intelligence is not just powering new business models. but reshaping the cost structure behind everyday devices.
The specific increases showed how broad the day’s change was. HomePod mini was raised to $129 from $99 (+$30), while HomePod rose to $349 from $299 (+$50). Apple TV went to $199 from $129 (+$70).
iPad Air climbed to $749 from $599 (+$150), and iPad Pro increased to $1,199 from $999 (+$200).
On MacBooks, MacBook Neo was priced at $699 from $599 (+$100), MacBook Air moved to $1,299 from $1,099 (+$200), and MacBook Pro rose to $1,999 from $1,699 (+$300). Desktop and studio offerings also shifted: iMac increased to $1. 499 from $1. 299 (+$200). Mac mini (M4 Pro) to $1. 599 from $1. 399 (+$200). and Mac Studio (M4 Max) to $2. 499 from $1. 999 (+$500).
The jump was larger at the high end, with Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) rising to $5,299 from $3,999 (+$1,300). Vision Pro was set at $3,699 from $3,499 (+$200).
Across the listed products, the average price increase was $246.67, according to MacRumors.
Thursday’s pricing update also did not touch several other Apple categories. In addition to the iPhone, prices for the Apple Watch, AirPods, Studio Display, and accessories such as the Apple Pencil also remain unaffected.
Apple isn’t the only tech company passing cost pressure onto customers. Microsoft also recently raised prices for its Surface laptops, and announced Thursday that it was increasing the price of its Xbox game consoles starting August 1.
Apple price hikes iPhone spared Mac prices up iPad prices up HomePod prices up Tim Cook AI memory and storage costs Counterpoint Research Microsoft Surface price increase Xbox price increase August 1 AAPL stock MSFT stock
So they raised everything except the iPhone? Classic.
I don’t even know why they took the store down, like it matters. If memory/storage costs are “skyrocketing” then why would iPhones be fine? Seems like they just don’t want people to riot about the one thing everyone buys.
Wait I thought the iPhone was also going up, but the article says spared? Maybe they’re sneaking it in later or in the iPhone Pro only? Also “hundred-year flood” sounds like a PR excuse, like they forgot to budget right. I’m just gonna assume the iPhone will cost more anyway once the next model drops.
HomePod and iPads up but iPhone not?? That’s backwards. My neighbor said it’s because iPhone uses different parts so it’s not affected by “AI memory,” which… sure? But it also says it’s from chipmakers to data centers, so wouldn’t that hit everything including iPhone? Idk, Apple gonna Apple I guess.