CUPERTINO, CALIF. — Apple intends to increase prices for its iPhones, iPads, and Macs due to rising memory chip costs. Apple CEO Tim Cook stated, "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable."

Cook said, "We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable." He added, "We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products." Cook also stated, "We can't do everything." and "We know what we're good at."

Memory chip suppliers are currently facing difficulties in meeting market demand. Artificial intelligence companies are contributing to this demand with increased orders for memory chips for data centers. Memory is currently the most expensive component in smartphone manufacturing, accounting for over 50 percent of a new smartphone's total hardware cost.

Apple previously made pricing adjustments, including removing the $599 Mac Mini option and raising its starting price to $799. The company also stopped selling the Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM in March. Apple plans to release its next major product lineup, including the iPhone 18, in September.

Industry projections estimate the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro could cost $1,299. Research firms project a potential $270 price increase for the next iPhone Pro model; the current iPhone 17 Pro is priced at $1,099. Cook stated, "We're willing to use our balance sheet to help be a part of the solution." He added, "Obviously, more capacity is needed."

Carl Pei, CEO of Nothing, said, "Phone prices are going up, and they'll keep going up into next year." He said, "For Phone 4A, memory costs doubled between when we decided to build the device and when it launched." Pei added, "They've doubled again since." He noted, "This year's sale season won't have the discounts people are used to." Pei explained, "If you've been waiting to upgrade a device, the best time was yesterday." and "The next best time is now."