The Fruity Cargo Cult Apple has whacked MacBook and iPad prices by about 20 per cent, blaming AI rather than greed.
According to the Financial Times, Jobs’ Mob’s decision to jack up its laptop and tablet lines spooked the cocaine-nose jobs of Wall Street, and the outfit’s shares fell 6.1 per cent, wiping $263 billion from its market value.
That was Job’s Mob’s biggest one-day fall since early April 2025, when US president Donald Trump announced his “liberation day” tariffs. It was the stock’s second-biggest one-day valuation drop on record.
The $4 trillion US tech outfit claimed the consumer technology industry faced an “unprecedented challenge”. Memory prices were rising so fast, apparently, that customers must cough up.
Job’s Mob chief executive Tim Cook warned last week that price rises this year would be “unavoidable” because of the “unsustainable” cost of memory and storage.
Naturally, the Tame Apple Press has been wafting incense and blaming evil AI, rather than Job’s Mob’s price gouging. The narrative is that the poor trillion-dollar outfit had no choice, it was either that or reduce its margins until the crisis was over.
A spokesApple said: “The rapid expansion of AI data centres has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions.”
So far, Job’s Mob has not dared raise iPhone prices. That shiny rectangle still accounts for about half its revenue, which makes it the altar where the faithful leave their rent money.
Historically, Job’s Mob has slipped price rises into new product launches, usually by targeting selected models or quietly killing cheaper ones. A blanket overnight rise across MacBooks and iPads is rare.
Across the iPad and MacBook line-up, prices have climbed by about 20 per cent. The 512GB MacBook Air rose from $1,099 to $1,299.
The iPad Pro 256GB jumped from $999 to $1,199. The MacBook Neo, Job’s Mob’s cheaper laptop launched in March, rose 25 per cent from $599 to $749.
Job’s Mob hiked prices for the HomePod, Vision Pro headset and Apple TV boxes as well. Apparently, the memory goblins got into the sofa cushions too.
By Job’s Mob’s own account, the AI-driven memory crunch is more disruptive than Trump’s tariff war or the Covid-19 supply chain mess.
Laptop makers the Grey Box Shifter, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Asus have flagged similar increases. Samsung raised two US models of its new S26 smartphone by $100.
Investors have been wondering how Job’s Mob will handle soaring DRAM and NAND prices. Its supplier muscle and in-house chip work were meant to soften the blow.
The DRam market is dominated by Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung. All three have passed $1 trillion valuations this year as AI hyperscalers such as Google, Meta and Amazon gobble advanced memory.
Job’s Mob has explored Chinese memory suppliers YMTC and CXMT, but then US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned about security risks in 2022, and Apple realised the idea was politically toxic.
