The Fruity Cargo Cult Apple is watching memory prices squeeze margins, and while its allies in the Tame Apple Press are claiming a foul, it is difficult to feel sorry for the outfit.
Turning Apple into a victim because it has to raise prices due to rising memory costs after it has been gouging fanboys for decades is the opposite of what should be done at this point. Editorials should be full of Schadenfreude, declaring that at last Apple is on the receiving end of what it has done to everyone else.
During the past decade, Job’s Mob raised the price of its flagship iPhone cash cow by 60 per cent. The average US consumer price index basket grew by just 37 per cent in the same period.
Job’s Mob used to secure memory chips through one-year-or-longer contracts. Those deals gave it chunky discounts compared with the market price at the time. Now Apple is forced to negotiate memory prices every quarter. Its focus has shifted from bargain hunting to securing enough supply for its swelling product lineup.
Meanwhile, LPDDR5X 12GB contract prices have climbed threefold since the first quarter of 2025.
Prices were hovering around $120 towards the end of the first quarter and into the second quarter of 2026. They have risen by $68.80 since the start of the year to hit $145 per unit recently.
That relentless DRAM price rise is now squeezing Job’s Mob’s huge margins. Analysts reckon the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro could rise to $1,399 from the $1,099 base price of the iPhone 17 Pro. The iPhone 18 Pro Max could start at $1,499, a $300 rise from the $1,199 base price of the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Still, sympathy is in short supply.
Job’s Mob has hiked the price of its top-end iPhone by 60 per cent during the past decade. The iPhone 7 Plus, then the flagship model, debuted at $749 in 2016. Last September, the iPhone 17 Pro Max started at $1,199. The US CPI basket rose from 240 in 2016 to 328.82 in 2026.
While the Tame Apple Press cries about jacked up prices, none of them has noticed that Jobs’ Mob’s margins are still expected to hover around 45 per cent. It has broadly passed on most of the memory cost to consumers.
Job’s Mob could use some of the windfall it has banked during the past decade to give loyal buyers a break. That would require a generosity upgrade, and Job’s Mob has never shipped that feature as standard. Loyalty is implied when you buy the overpriced trinket, and it has been since Apple released its first PC. I mean, it has never been that you can’t find something better, cheaper; it has just been that you are part of a large group of idiots who feel smug about spending too much money for something with an Apple sticker.
