{"id":761019,"date":"2026-06-26T06:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761019\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T06:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:53:20","slug":"australians-to-pay-at-least-20-more-for-ipads-and-macbooks-after-apple-hikes-prices-citing-ai-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761019\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians to pay at least 20% more for iPads and Macbooks after Apple hikes prices citing AI | Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australians woke up on Friday to more expensive Macbooks and iPads after Apple<\/a> hiked prices worldwide, blaming an AI-driven cost-crunch for computer parts.<\/p>\n

The iPhone range was unaffected but experts predict Apple will raise prices for its flagship product later this year. Microsoft also lifted its Xbox prices overnight amid a wave of increases for phones and devices.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s MacBook Air with a 13-inch display now starts at $2,099, up from $1,799, on the Australian website, while the MacBook Pro 14-inch starts at $3,199 on Apple\u2019s site. Both were available for the cheaper price from other retailers as of Friday afternoon however.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

There are no longer MacBooks available from Apple for less than $1,000. The smaller MacBook Neo, which arrived in Australia in March at $899, now starts at $1,049 from Apple. The company said at the time the Neo was its<\/a> \u201cmost affordable laptop ever\u201d.<\/p>\n

Table<\/a><\/p>\n

The iPad starts at $749, from $599, while the mini model starts at $949, from $799, the Air at $1,249, from $999, and the pro starts at $1,999, from $1,699.<\/p>\n

The iMac desktop now starts at $2,399 and the Mac Studio at $4,299.<\/p>\n

Australia retailers have yet to pass on the price increase. Officeworks\u2019 prices were unchanged on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe regularly review our pricing to ensure we continue delivering great value, and we\u2019re currently working through Apple\u2019s recent pricing changes,\u201d an Officeworks spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

JB Hi-Fi promoted Apple deals at the top of its website on Friday, with sales on the MacBook Air 13-inch at $1,597, Macbook Pro 14-inch at $2,797 and the iPad at $495. The tech retailer has warned the rising demand for computers chips as the world rapidly increases computing power and AI usage has pushed up device costs.<\/p>\n

Its chief executive, Nick Wells, told analysts in February the cost-crunch was resulting in 20% price rises for PCs and phones were vulnerable to the same price hikes.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The iPhone 17 Pro still starts at $1,999 and the Pro Max at $2,199 on Apple\u2019s website. In February, Wells said iPhones could be hit from September, when the iPhone 18 models will be released.<\/p>\n

Apple said it has been absorbing rising computer part costs but had now reached a point where it had to raise prices. Its share price fell 6.15% on Thursday, US time, wiping US$250bn from its market value to close at US$4tn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,\u201d Apple said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Microsoft on Thursday US time also announced it would lift Xbox console prices by US$100 (A$145) for 512GB models and US$150 (A$218) for 1TB models and cease selling the 2TB model.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the company said storage and memory prices had nearly tripled and were set to double again by late 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options,\u201d Microsoft said.<\/p>\n

Datacentres use up significant quantities of memory chips and booming development has led to a shortage dubbed the \u201cRAMageddon\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An International Data Corporation analyst, Soo Kyoum Kim, warned in a note on Monday<\/a> the shortage was permanently rewriting the economics of consumer device production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real question is whether the product economics of affordable devices can be rebuilt around structurally higher memory costs, or whether product mix and [prices] shift permanently upward,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians woke up on Friday to more expensive Macbooks and iPads after Apple hiked prices worldwide, blaming an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-761019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}