Apple raises Mac and iPad prices, spares iPhone for now

Amid a worldwide memory shortage driven by the AI buildout, Apple is raising prices of its Mac and iPad lineups, as reported by Bloomberg . For the moment, there is no rise in iPhone prices, but there is a possibility that it could arrive later in the year. The new entrant to the MacBook lineup, MacBook Neo, will now cost $699 instead of $599. The company also raised the base MacBook Air’s price from $1,099 to $1,299 and the MacBook Pro’s price from $1,699 to $1,999. The desktop-class Mac Studio now costs $2,499 up from $1,999 iPads also received a price bump: the Air now costs $749, up from $599, and the Pro now costs $1,199, up from $999. Apple’s smart home devices are costlier as well. The standard HomePod is up from $299 to $349, HomePod Mini is up from $99 to $129, and the Apple TV box is up from $99 to $129. “The consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge. The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” the company told CNBC in a statement. “We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions,” it added. Last week, Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal that price hikes for Apple’s products were “unavoidable,” as memory and storage component prices keep rising because of the AI boom. …