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I think it would be uncharacteristic of Apple to raise prices anytime from now till new products are announced in September. It doesn’t match Apple’s brand imag

by AnonC 3mo ago

I think it would be uncharacteristic of Apple to raise prices anytime from now till new products are announced in September. It doesn’t match Apple’s brand image (like the author says). As pointed in another post by John Gruber, Apple kept selling the trash can Mac Pro for a very high price for years without any updates. So it can certainly afford to bear this pain for a couple of more months and bundle all the price hikes together. The threat of a price hike may increase sales in the near term (especially the back to school sale) and could tamper down the drop in profits a bit. After all, the hardware bill of materials is not the only thing deciding the product price. A bigger hike now could have a snowballing effect on “switchers” and the potential services revenues they could bring. I’m guessing that Apple will increase the prices of all products with the iPhone and Apple Watch launches in September. The increase in prices for currently selling products will be a store update, without any press release or news or tweet or any notification. That’s the (quiet) Apple way of doing things.

MBCook 3mo ago
I suspect you’re right, but if they don’t do it until the new stuff is announced I suspect the price hike would drown out the news of all the new stuff. And I really don’t think Apple wants that. If they announce it on, to pick a date, July 1 then by the time the iPhone is announced it will be somewhat old news. It will still get mentioned but it won’t be the main feature of every story at announcement time. Like so many other companies Apple is between a rock and a hard place with this stuff.
- cj 3mo ago
  > I suspect the price hike would drown out the news of all the new stuff. And I really don’t think Apple wants that. I think they could get away with it if they do something like drop the price of the lowest device tier (or minimally hold price steady) and only increase prices on their more premium line up, where the premium buyers are less price sensitive.
  - MBCook 3mo ago
    The problem is the things going up are core. It’s not like the cameras are getting more expensive, it’s the RAM and processors and storage. Which all the phones have to have. If anything the percentage increase is probably higher on the low end phones relative to total bill cost.
    - ktallett 3mo ago
      Which is where you accept the loss. Lower cost products are often required to be loss leaders to get people through the door.
mikejulietbravo 3mo ago
came to say this, there's almost zero history for this so unless their supply chain got meaningfully distorted I can't see why this would happen now
- fragmede 3mo ago
  Yes, there's been a meaningful distortion in the global RAM supply chain.
hylaride 3mo ago
It'll really depend on apple's contracts with suppliers and the types of ram used in certain products. I could see them having medium term contracts, with first right of refusal to purchase on the longer term. Memory has been a boom/bust industry since the 1970s, so I imagine people are careful with long-term agreements, but that's just me spitballing.
adolph 3mo ago
> As pointed in another post by John Gruber, Apple kept selling the trash can Mac Pro for a very high price for years without any updates. So it can certainly afford to bear this pain for a couple of more months and bundle all the price hikes together. It seems unlikely that Apple created a rainy day fund from offering an legacy product at niche prices almost a decade ago. Equally unlikely that Apple will continue to sell at a loss today out of a traditional disregard for decreasing component costs.
WhyNotHugo 3mo ago
Maybe that's why the 512GB RAM models are gone: they opt to pull a model without further announcement rather than increase its prices.
- giancarlostoro 3mo ago
  It was probably two birds one stone: they could use that RAM for other more likely to be purchased models, and the loss from selling 512GB of "pre-RAM-AI-tax" costs would have been too high. They would have certainly sold those models though.
- Lalabadie 3mo ago
  It's also a financial optimization: Even with the very expensive RAM upgrade prices, it's way better to use the same memory chips to manufacture and sell four Mac Minis or two Mac Studios, rather than a single high-RAM unit.
- hajile 3mo ago
  Demand for 512+gb hasn't gone away though. I suspect we'll see M5/M6 Ultra later this year with 512gb-1tb of ram going for the biggest premium we've ever seen from the company.
  - bigyabai 3mo ago
    > I suspect we'll see M5/M6 Ultra later this year with 512gb-1tb of ram I suspect the opposite. 512gb of LPDDR5X is enough memory to make sixty four Macbook Neos. Apple's HPC/server audience is not very large or demanding, it seems likely that they will avoid memory upgrades during the shortage to focus on delivering value to low-end consumers and driving service sales.
  - vb-8448 3mo ago
    Probably the first >20k$ macbook ever ...
mathgeek 3mo ago
This sure seems like the Apple way to do it. "The old stuff is now more expensive" is a worse marketing announcement than "the new stuff is awesome, and with it comes a higher price just like most years".
- layer8 3mo ago
  Apple doesn’t increase prices most years, so that doesn’t really make sense. The iPhone Pros this year also look to be a minor update.
  - mathgeek 3mo ago
    I suppose it depends on naming schemes. I view it as the price of the higher tier models go up regularly. Apple markets some model most years at the old model price points which is fair to say stays the same price.
ksec 3mo ago
The best path and most likely path will be Apple stop the 256GB price point. Customers will be forced to buy the higher capacity iPhone. So iPhone 17 512GB start at $999. Effectively Apple hasn't really up the price, customer just don't have the lower storage option.

by AnonC 3mo ago

MBCook 3mo ago

I suspect you’re right, but if they don’t do it until the new stuff is announced I suspect the price hike would drown out the news of all the new stuff. And I really don’t think Apple wants that. If they announce it on, to pick a date, July 1 then by the time the iPhone is announced it will be somewhat old news. It will still get mentioned but it won’t be the main feature of every story at announcement time. Like so many other companies Apple is between a rock and a hard place with this stuff.

cj 3mo ago
> I suspect the price hike would drown out the news of all the new stuff. And I really don’t think Apple wants that. I think they could get away with it if they do something like drop the price of the lowest device tier (or minimally hold price steady) and only increase prices on their more premium line up, where the premium buyers are less price sensitive.
- MBCook 3mo ago
  The problem is the things going up are core. It’s not like the cameras are getting more expensive, it’s the RAM and processors and storage. Which all the phones have to have. If anything the percentage increase is probably higher on the low end phones relative to total bill cost.
  - ktallett 3mo ago
    Which is where you accept the loss. Lower cost products are often required to be loss leaders to get people through the door.

mikejulietbravo 3mo ago

came to say this, there's almost zero history for this so unless their supply chain got meaningfully distorted I can't see why this would happen now

fragmede 3mo ago
Yes, there's been a meaningful distortion in the global RAM supply chain.

hylaride 3mo ago

It'll really depend on apple's contracts with suppliers and the types of ram used in certain products. I could see them having medium term contracts, with first right of refusal to purchase on the longer term. Memory has been a boom/bust industry since the 1970s, so I imagine people are careful with long-term agreements, but that's just me spitballing.

adolph 3mo ago

> As pointed in another post by John Gruber, Apple kept selling the trash can Mac Pro for a very high price for years without any updates. So it can certainly afford to bear this pain for a couple of more months and bundle all the price hikes together. It seems unlikely that Apple created a rainy day fund from offering an legacy product at niche prices almost a decade ago. Equally unlikely that Apple will continue to sell at a loss today out of a traditional disregard for decreasing component costs.

WhyNotHugo 3mo ago

Maybe that's why the 512GB RAM models are gone: they opt to pull a model without further announcement rather than increase its prices.

giancarlostoro 3mo ago
It was probably two birds one stone: they could use that RAM for other more likely to be purchased models, and the loss from selling 512GB of "pre-RAM-AI-tax" costs would have been too high. They would have certainly sold those models though.
Lalabadie 3mo ago
It's also a financial optimization: Even with the very expensive RAM upgrade prices, it's way better to use the same memory chips to manufacture and sell four Mac Minis or two Mac Studios, rather than a single high-RAM unit.
hajile 3mo ago
Demand for 512+gb hasn't gone away though. I suspect we'll see M5/M6 Ultra later this year with 512gb-1tb of ram going for the biggest premium we've ever seen from the company.
- bigyabai 3mo ago
  > I suspect we'll see M5/M6 Ultra later this year with 512gb-1tb of ram I suspect the opposite. 512gb of LPDDR5X is enough memory to make sixty four Macbook Neos. Apple's HPC/server audience is not very large or demanding, it seems likely that they will avoid memory upgrades during the shortage to focus on delivering value to low-end consumers and driving service sales.
- vb-8448 3mo ago
  Probably the first >20k$ macbook ever ...

mathgeek 3mo ago

This sure seems like the Apple way to do it. "The old stuff is now more expensive" is a worse marketing announcement than "the new stuff is awesome, and with it comes a higher price just like most years".

layer8 3mo ago
Apple doesn’t increase prices most years, so that doesn’t really make sense. The iPhone Pros this year also look to be a minor update.
- mathgeek 3mo ago
  I suppose it depends on naming schemes. I view it as the price of the higher tier models go up regularly. Apple markets some model most years at the old model price points which is fair to say stays the same price.

ksec 3mo ago

The best path and most likely path will be Apple stop the 256GB price point. Customers will be forced to buy the higher capacity iPhone. So iPhone 17 512GB start at $999. Effectively Apple hasn't really up the price, customer just don't have the lower storage option.