Cook signals more Apple price hikes coming — memory chip costs up 4× in three quarters
TL;DR
24 hours after raising Mac/iPad prices, Tim Cook tells the Wall Street Journal more hikes are coming. Memory chip prices have risen 4× in three quarters; iPhone 18 (September) is next.
Less than 24 hours after Apple's June 25 Mac/iPad price hike, Tim Cook confirmed in a Wall Street Journal interview that more increases are coming. iPhone 18 launches in September — first in line. Cook himself steps down on September 1; incoming CEO John Ternus inherits the second round of hikes.
Cook's quote: «Unfortunately, price increases are inevitable. We've been absorbing the enormous increases passed through to us, and we've been absorbing them on behalf of consumers. But we've reached a point where the situation is no longer sustainable.» He pre-warned the same line on June 17. The June 25 hike landed it. iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods are queued for the next cycle.
The driver is concrete: memory and storage prices have risen 4× in three quarters — Counterpoint Research data — because Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron prioritized HBM capacity for AI servers. iPhone's biggest hit is LPDDR5X, the same DRAM that powers on-device Apple Intelligence: the more iPhone tries to run AI locally, the more expensive it gets.
How much: TechInsights says iPhone 18 Pro needs +$270 to hold gross margin; JPMorgan optimistically estimates just +$50. Even at JPMorgan's number, the Pro starts above $1,049 — and the 128GB entry tier is disappearing on borrowed time.
The real shift isn't «Apple raises prices» — that's two posts in two days now — but the breaking of a decade-long pricing tradition. Apple's iron rule was: announce price at launch, hold for years, eat the volatility. Cook is dismantling that rule in his last quarter, leaving Ternus a new norm of «raise every few months».
Next window is the September iPhone 18 event. The market has moved past «will they» to betting $270 vs $50.
via WSJ via ABC News
Cook's quote: «Unfortunately, price increases are inevitable. We've been absorbing the enormous increases passed through to us, and we've been absorbing them on behalf of consumers. But we've reached a point where the situation is no longer sustainable.» He pre-warned the same line on June 17. The June 25 hike landed it. iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods are queued for the next cycle.
The driver is concrete: memory and storage prices have risen 4× in three quarters — Counterpoint Research data — because Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron prioritized HBM capacity for AI servers. iPhone's biggest hit is LPDDR5X, the same DRAM that powers on-device Apple Intelligence: the more iPhone tries to run AI locally, the more expensive it gets.
How much: TechInsights says iPhone 18 Pro needs +$270 to hold gross margin; JPMorgan optimistically estimates just +$50. Even at JPMorgan's number, the Pro starts above $1,049 — and the 128GB entry tier is disappearing on borrowed time.
The real shift isn't «Apple raises prices» — that's two posts in two days now — but the breaking of a decade-long pricing tradition. Apple's iron rule was: announce price at launch, hold for years, eat the volatility. Cook is dismantling that rule in his last quarter, leaving Ternus a new norm of «raise every few months».
Next window is the September iPhone 18 event. The market has moved past «will they» to betting $270 vs $50.
via WSJ via ABC News
