GoKawiilApple raised prices across the board on Thursday, pointing the finger at RAMageddon for what Apple CEO Tim Cook called an "unavoidable" response to rising memory and storage prices as demand for these components surged with the spread of AI data centers. The price hikes hit many Apple product lines, including the iPad, Mac, Apple TV, HomePod and VisionPro. Seemingly, only the iPhone and Apple Watch were spared.
What I'm most upset about is that Apple raised the price of its budget MacBook Neo. We finally got a MacBook built for student budgets, and in the blink of an eye, it's gone. The $499 Neo student pricing lasted about as long as a semester.
Only three-and-a-half months after Apple drastically reduced the entry point for the MacBook, it's turned around and raised the price by $100. Now, the MacBook Neo starts at $699 at Apple, and students can get it for $599. (At the time of this writing, it's still available for $590 at Amazon.)
The cost of the step-up model with Touch ID and double the storage also went up by $100. It now costs $799, or $699 with Apple's education discount. (It's still $690 at Amazon.)
Is it really the RAM?
Apple and other computer-makers point to the surge in demand for memory and storage from AI data centers, called RAMageddon, as the reason for rising component prices, which have forced them to hike the price of the computers they sell. But with only 8GB of RAM and a modest 256GB SSD, the baseline MacBook Neo doesn't seem to merit a $100 increase. And given that the step-up model gets you only a 512GB SSD with no accompanying increase in memory, its $100 price hike feels steep, too.
I think Apple is hiding the real reason behind the Neo's price hike: It sold through its initial supply of Neos that used leftover iPhone processors and now must incur the added cost of manufacturing new A18 Pro chips to meet Neo demand.
As previously reported, Apple was preparing a new production run of the MacBook Neo, increasing the number of units to 10 million from its initial run, estimated at 5 to 6 million. And the math changes for Apple if it no longer has a stash of A18 Pro chips it can borrow for this new Neo run.
I suspect RAMageddon is a convenient excuse for Apple to cover the added costs to make new Neos. Or at least, it's not the only reason for Apple raising the price of the Neo just a few months after its debut.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this theory.
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