The wait is over, but not in the way consumers hoped. After days of rumors and veiled warnings from company executives, the Apple Store is back online presenting a price list updated upward.
This move reflects a complex global situation that has hit other brands as well. Memory manufacturers are indeed dedicating almost all of their resources and production lines to the large data centers needed for AI development, effectively diverting essential components from the traditional consumer devices market.
This imbalance between supply and demand has generated unsustainable production costs. Consequently, it also forces an electronics giant with enormous bargaining power like Apple to adjust the final sale prices to protect its own corporate margins, passing the increases onto the final consumer.
MacBook e iPad: su Amazon prezzi inferiori ai nuovi listini
The impact on customers’ wallets is evident and hits across almost all categories of computers and tablets from the California brand, excluding for the moment only iPhone smartphones, Apple Watch, and the AirPods line.
Looking at the new official figures, the change is immediately noticeable starting with the entry-level model. The most affordable laptop, the MacBook Neo, undergoes an increase of 100 euros, rising from 699 euros to the current 799 euros.
Moving up a tier for those seeking more versatile machines, the MacBook Air 13- and 15-inch models register a net increase of 200 euros each, reaching respectively 1,449 euros and 1,749 euros.
Even more pronounced is the upward correction for professional-grade computers. The MacBook Pro in the base version sees its cost rise to 2,549 euros, a full 400 euros more than before. The more advanced configurations, such as the 16-inch models equipped with the M5 Max processor, reach the notable figure of 5,199 euros, marking a jump of 600 euros.
Desktop workstations are not spared either. The compact Mac mini M4 now starts at 979 euros, marking an increase of 250 euros.
The Mac Studio M3 Ultra, a machine dedicated to top-tier content creators, undergoes the most severe change in the entire product catalog, rising from 5,099 euros to 6,399 euros, with an impressive raw increase of 1,300 euros.
Moving to the tablet segment, the entire iPad Air family is nudged upwards by 160 euros, bringing the 13-inch model to surpass the thousand-euro mark and setting it at 1,029 euros. The iPad Pro models equipped with the powerful M5 chip cost today 200 euros more across all their variants, reaching 1,319 euros for the 11-inch variant and 1,669 euros for the larger one. Subtle increases also affect home devices, with the HomePod and the Apple TV recording rises between 30 euros and 60 euros.
The current window of opportunity
On the major e-commerce platforms, it is still possible to spot extremely attractive promotions on the remaining stock.
For obvious fluctuation reasons, I won’t list here the exact cent-by-cent prices of the offers, but the products we found while drafting this article remain below the new increased prices, even though in some cases they may still be slightly higher than the old starting prices before the rise.
However, the time available to take advantage of these stock is extremely limited. External distributors and large online stores continually adjust their tariffs to align with the directives imposed by the parent company.
With the costs of components that, according to estimates, risk quadrupling by autumn, vendors’ margins to maintain advantageous discounts are thinning day by day.
Anyone seriously considering an purchase should therefore act now, securing the desired device before online storefronts update in a definitive and irreversible way to the new standards.
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