Apple and Xbox are raising prices on consumer devices as the AI boom has caused a global shortage of memory and storage chips, pushing up costs across the electronics industry.
Apple on Thursday said it would increase the prices of some MacBooks and iPads by up to 20% worldwide, citing an "extraordinary surge" in demand for chips used in AI data centers. Hours later, Microsoft-owned Xbox announced its second console price increase in less than a year, raising prices by up to $150 from August as it cited the same memory and storage crunch.
The moves are the clearest sign yet that the race to build AI infrastructure is starting to hit consumers' wallets. Here's what smart people in business and tech are saying about the price hike.
Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities
In a note on Thursday, the tech megabull wrote that while Apple is known to secure low prices because of its bulk purchases, memory price increases have "forced" it to raise prices.
"We believe the company is in a strong position to increase prices without sacrificing hardware performance and risking increasing customer churn given the company's increasing focus on the higher-end consumer," Ives wrote.
Daniel Ahmed, director of research and insights at Niko Partners
Ahmed said on X that the most important part of the announcement is that Xbox said console storage and memory prices have increased more than twofold — and that the company expects another doubling by the fall of 2027.
"This is also why I'm expecting another price increase for the Switch 2 in 2027 at this point," Ahmed said on Thursday.
"The delayed price increase this year is to help build up the install base in the Switch's 2nd year," he added.
Nabila Popal, senior director of International Data Corporation's data & analytics team
Popal said on a LinkedIn post that the latest Apple price hikes were higher than she had expected, and that might be a signal for Apple's next possible move: iPhone hikes.
"The up to $500 hikes on MacBooks will only make the likely $100-$200 hikes on the iPhones seem relatively 'reasonable,'" wrote Popal. "Apple's Genius timing and strategic move to get the consumers used to the idea and announce it come after the increases to the MACs."
"I think the days of $50 price increases are over," she added.
Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management
In a Thursday post on X, Munster said that, for the most part, a large price change leads to little change in Apple consumer demand.
"Apple's 1.5B consumers (my estimate) are locked into the ecosystem and, more importantly, get a ton of value out of the products even with the most recent price bump," he wrote.
He added: "Average life of a Mac is 4.5 years before it's traded in which means a $200 increase adds $3.70 a month to the cost of ownership."
Sawyer Merritt, tech influencer and investor
Merritt wrote in a post on X on Thursday that he doesn't think this will be the last price hike for Apple.
"Xbox is increasing console prices by 25% in August, saying that console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and that they expect another doubling by the fall of 2027," Merritt added.
Alex Cheema, cofounder of EXO Labs
Cheema posted on X on Thursday that the 128 gigabyte M5 Max MacBook Pro just saw a 29% price hike.
"No new products, just higher prices," said the AI startup cofounder.
"A customer of ours bought 42 of these just before the price increase - they saved $67,200," Cheema added. "If you want to run local AI, you need to secure hardware ASAP."
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