Consider buying Apple refurbished products.
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Most tech companies have probably way less margin (and definitely much less profit) than Apple. Time will tell how the market reacts to these price increases.
All told, I think this going to cause a re-evaluation of the purchase of tech. We are now talking of significant financial investment in hardware, not to mention the almost universal move to subscriptions for software. Perhaps Apple will truly become a device of the wealthy. I wonder if this is going to see a resurgence of people buying devices they can upgrade themselves. Let’s face it screens and keyboards can last longer if you can swap the SSD/HDD and RAM.
I’m definitely sticking with Sequoia until my laptop dies. I’ve already switched to a Google Pixel because of iPhone prices. It may be that I end up on Linux with an upgradeable machine in a few years. I have to see what Apple only software I’m reliant on and remove dependence in the next few years.
It’s good to see that open source software is increasing and this will likely accelerate this also. I’ve just moved to Taskwarrior from Todoist, with a script that copies my weekly todo’s to Obsidian for when I’m out of the office.
AI is certainly having a big impact on everything from hardware costs to climate change.
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To buy a new Apple device? 
“The reality distortion field is strong with this one”… 
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If the “on-device AI” tax becomes prohibitive, some consumers may choose more reasonably priced cloud based AI solutions. That may never require a hardware upgrade.
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Personally, I have already come to that conclusion.
Interestingly, Apple are in a unique position here where they seem to be building it into their hardware. MS is keeping it software only. This seems to suggest that Apple users will be paying the AI tax premium.
Maybe no consumer hardware upgrade, but the provider might need to upgrade.
And reflect that in the price of the subscription…
I think you are right for the tech savvy and tech aware, but for the “average consumer” that Apple serves, I do not think switching to open source applications is likely. I am reasonably tech capable, but I have no interest in switching to Linux or open source applications. For me, that would create more friction and frustration than it is worth. I will just avoid subscriptions wherever possible and use the hardware for as long as it meets my needs and supports the latest OS and security patches.
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That’s not surprising when you consider 75% percent of Apple’s revenue comes from hardware.
Hardware brings in less than 5% of Microsoft’s revenue. Google doesn’t break out hardware separately but it, along with “platforms, and subscriptions” is around 10%.
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I’m sure that financial considerations are the main reason for the timing of the price increases, but I wonder if it is also positioning Ternus to start on a positive note. PR may be thinking it is better for Tim to take the “hit” for the price increase than having Ternus do so during his first months at the helm.
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Google has already done that. I have a Google Workspace business standard account, and they raised my rate from $12/month/user to $14/month/user when they added Gemini to all GW accounts. And it seems I get a notice, and an option to upgrade, every time they introduce additional features.
But Google also builds Gemini into much of their free software. For example, Gemini Assistant is built into Google Maps for iOS. That’s one of the advantages of choosing an iPhone. Getting to use iOS apps and Gemini, etc. apps.
It’s not like there’s a massive number of companies which manufacture and sell RAM. In the end if it was Apple and Micron had said no, there aren’t a lot of other options, and there are other customers who would be looking to buy Ram.
The use of the term “took advantage” is wrong. both sides agree a deal, no-one was putting a gun to their head.
I’ve no doubt Apple maximise their opportunities to maintain their margins, but it’s Micron’s job to have a sustainable business and if they believed that Memory was historically low and the price was going to go up, they should have factored that into their costs.
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Oh, 100%
Anyone outgoing from a role can often be encouraged to be the face of a decision which is unlikely to be popular. I’ve done that a couple of times before changing role because it was the right thing to do and it gave my successor the ability to play good cop.
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The old saying is that necessity is the mother of invention. If you have children or teenagers or university students and you have to replace their hardware, a 20%+ hike is going to make you rethink your strategy. My family were are one point all iPhone users, but the constant price increases and decrease in performance means that three of us use pixels now and one is using the last iPhone. Once that dies, it will become a pixel unless they decide to buy their own device. We’re not evening entertaining any Apple laptops for both teenagers for school and would resist any school/college push to buy Apple (which some do), very strongly. 10 years ago we thought we’d all be in the Apple camp forever. I’ve even replaced my Apple Watch with a Polar watch. I cannot imagine we’re the only family heading in this direction and all the more so as the price increases hit. At least with Windows and Linux you are not forced to buy AI chips to run onboard AI and lose disk space in the process.
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Apple seems to think it has a certain amount of Elasticity and corporate buyers, although price conscious, tend to stick with what they know.
Apple make massive profits, so it would be good for them to get some push back with less people buying devices to remind them. With them potentially releasing the folding iPhone in a few months at an eye watering price, how much have they figured in things like price increases to whether it’s a success.
The iPhone mini got two revisions, and the iPhone Plus got one or two before they were ditched. If the Fold doesn’t sell well, will it get the same treatment?
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I’m really curious to see how European customers will react when the next iPhones and iPads launch.
With prices expected to be higher than ever, while European models are still missing or delaying some features available elsewhere, will people keep buying them without hesitation? It will be interesting to see how the market responds.
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And now Apple release a statement.
Protesting too much?
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What bothers me the most about this is that it would seem to be short term thinking AGAIN on hardware. 9GB of RAM in a phone?
Remember when Apple stuck at 16GB base storage specs on iPhones to the point where people were unable to upgrade their phones because they didn’t have space to download the 3GB installer and have the space to unpack it.
Apple Watch SOCs have been stuck for 3 or 4 years at a time without meaningful updates, leading to perfectly good 3 year old watches being cut off this year.
Apple crows that it wants its users to keep using their hardware for YEARS, but scrimping on RAM now in what is a time when resource usage is speeding ahead, will leave users needing to upgrade sooner.
When the M1 came out I remember people saying that the hardware would be good for many, many years including David Sparks, but the default ram was 8GB and Apple is quickly building software features which use the overhead the M chips have in a world where 8GB was a paltry amount then and it certainly is now.
Disappointing Apple.
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we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.
More to come? (Emphasis mine)
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