Apple confirms: Apple products will soon become more expensive
Apple products will soon become significantly more expensive due to persistent chip shortages. Tim Cook has now confirmed this himself in an interview.
Apple products are becoming more expensive
It has been coming for a while. One major tech company after another has recently been announcing hefty price increases due to the persistent shortage of memory and storage chips. And although Apple managed to protect customers from rising costs for a long time, that is now coming to an end.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, price increases are “unavoidable” and the situation where Apple absorbs the extra costs has become “unsustainable.” He said this in an interview with the Wall Street Journal . This means that we will soon be paying more for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and all other Apple devices with memory or storage – this includes just about the entire range.
Incidentally, we expect the increases to be substantial: it could easily amount to hundreds of euros, particularly for devices with a lot of storage or memory.
This is the cause
The cause of the chip shortage is the rise of AI services such as ChatGPT . These require powerful servers with enormous amounts of memory and storage. Not only to keep the services running, but also to constantly train new language and image models that are even better than previous versions.
As a result, a large portion of the production of memory and storage chips is currently being absorbed by AI companies. This is creating a shortage for other applications, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other personal devices. It is expected to take months, if not more than a year, before chip production capacity can meet demand.
Shop quickly now?
Does this mean you should stock up on Apple products quickly now? If you have a device that was due for replacement anyway, it is indeed wise not to wait too long to make your purchase. Otherwise, you might end up paying hundreds of euros more for your device.
However, you shouldn’t let yourself get carried away either. We expect chip shortages to gradually decrease next year; either thanks to increasing production capacity or due to the bursting of the so-called AI bubble. If your purchase can wait another year, you can therefore weather the price increases.