Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that price increases for Apple products may be “unavoidable” as the cost of important components continues to rise. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cook said that the tech giant has tried to protect customers from higher costs for as long as possible. However, the company is now facing major increases in the prices of memory and storage chips. Cook did not reveal when prices could go up or which products would be affected.
“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” he 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.”
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The biggest reason behind the possible price hike is the growing demand for memory and storage chips from AI companies. These chips are used in smartphones, laptops, servers, gaming consoles, and many other devices. As companies invest heavily in artificial intelligence, they are buying large amounts of these components, making them more expensive and harder to obtain.
Cook said the problem is especially serious in the memory market. He pointed out that more memory is now being reserved for AI servers, leaving less supply available for consumer electronics.
“There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” said Cook. “We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.”
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Cook also said Apple is willing to use its financial resources to help improve supply, but ruled out building its own memory factories.
Looking at the current situation, Cook described the recent surge in chip prices as something he has never witnessed before. “This is a hundred-year flood,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.”
For now, Apple users will just have to wait and see if the next generation of iPhones, Macs and iPads comes with higher price tags.
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