rewrite this title Apple Raises MacBook and iPad Prices as AI Chip Crunch Hits Enterprise Hardware – UC Today

Apple has raised prices on several Mac and iPad models, citing sharply rising memory and storage costs linked to surging demand from AI data centre buildouts.

In the US, the increases include a rise in the MacBook Air with 512GB of storage from $1,099 to $1,299, and the MacBook Pro with 1TB of storage from $1,699 to $1,999.

The iPad Air with 128GB of storage increased from $599 to $749. The MacBook Neo, Apple’s entry-level laptop, has also been repriced from $599 to $699 only months after launch.

Similar price increases have been applied across Apple’s global markets.

While the iPhone has been spared, Apple also raised prices on selected accessories, including HomePod and Apple TV devices.

The company said it could no longer absorb the pace of component inflation, describing an “extraordinary surge” in memory costs. It said: “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” adding that it had previously “shielded our customers from these increases” but had reached a point where pricing adjustments were necessary.

Apple said it is “working tirelessly to find solutions,” but did not detail specific mitigation measures beyond pricing changes.

AI Infrastructure Demand Is Reshaping Memory Supply

The price increases come amid a sharp escalation in demand for high-performance memory used in AI data centres.

DRAM prices rose as much as 98 percent in Q1 2026 and are forecast to increase a further 58 percent to 63 percent in the current quarter, according to industry tracking data.

The surge has been driven by rapid AI infrastructure expansion, which is absorbing large volumes of memory supply that would traditionally go into consumer devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

Memory suppliers including Micron have shifted toward long-term supply agreements with AI-focused customers, further tightening availability for PC and device manufacturers.

Micron has said it has secured $22 billion in such commitments from customers seeking guaranteed access to memory supply.

MacBook Neo Loses Entry-Level Pricing Advantage

Apple’s price adjustments have also affected its newest entry-level laptop, the MacBook Neo, which launched in March at $599 and now costs $699 in the US.

The increase narrows its pricing gap with competing Windows laptops, including Dell’s XPS 13, which was introduced at $699. The shift reduces Apple’s cost advantage in the sub-premium laptop segment, where price sensitivity remains high among both consumer and business buyers.

What It Means For UC And IT Teams

For UC and IT teams, the timing of these increases is likely to have direct operational and financial consequences.

MacBooks remain widely deployed as standard endpoints in enterprise environments, particularly in organisations supporting hybrid work, Apple-first device strategies, or bring-your-own-device policies. iPads are also frequently used as UC endpoints, including meeting room controllers, Teams panels, and Zoom Room interfaces.

Even modest per-device price increases can scale quickly across large fleets, affecting total cost of ownership calculations for organisations managing hundreds or thousands of endpoints.

Procurement teams may now face a combination of higher upfront hardware costs and pressure to extend device refresh cycles.

This could slow planned upgrades across UC estates or prompt IT leaders to reassess device mix strategies between Apple, Windows, and ChromeOS ecosystems.

Wider Device Market Under Pressure

The broader PC and smartphone markets are also being affected by the same memory constraints.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook had previously warned that rising memory costs would begin to have a more significant impact beyond the June quarter, describing the environment as increasingly challenging for managing margins.

“We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.”

While Apple remains better positioned than most manufacturers due to its scale and supply chain leverage, the price increases highlight how AI infrastructure demand is reshaping cost structures across mainstream computing hardware.

For UC and IT decision-makers, the key implication is not just higher Apple pricing in isolation, but a broader structural shift in endpoint economics at a time when device fleets are still scaling for hybrid work.