- Apple CEO has warned of ‘significantly higher memory costs’
- As of June, we’re told that the cost of RAM will “drive an increasing impact” on Apple’s Macs
- Samsung has also warned about the memory crisis and that “significant shortages” will continue at least into 2027
Apple is warning about the impact of increasingly expensive RAM with its products, and a major memory chip maker has also contributed to the gloomy news when it comes to RAM supply and pricing.
MacRumors reports that Apple just had its quarterly earnings call, and CEO Tim Cook observed that memory costs increased in the March quarter (Q2 of the fiscal year). In addition, Cook said that in the next (June) quarter, Apple expects “significantly higher memory costs” and that from June 2026, the cost of RAM will “drive an increasing impact” on Apple’s products.
Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Part of the problem is that Apple’s significant stockpile of RAM that it had built up – paid for in the past when prices were still at more normal levels – is starting to run out, so naturally there will be something to give away in terms of prices.
The article continues below
Quite what, we don’t know, and all the CEO would be drawn to say is that Apple is exploring a “range of options” to deal with potential price increases due to having to pay more (much more, arguably) for RAM.
9 to 5 Mac went further to observe that Cook also commented on the stock issues with two of Apple’s Macs that have been seen lately. The CEO said: “On the Mac mini and Mac Studio, both of these are great platforms for artificial intelligence and agent tools, and customer recognition is happening faster than we predicted, so we saw higher demand than expected.”
This is due to the popularity of running local AIs on a device that has lots of memory, such as the more powerful configurations of these Macs (driven by the success of the AI agent OpenClaw).
Cook also noted that demand for the new MacBook Neo has been “off the charts” and that for all of these Macs, it could take Apple a few months to address the supply shortage.
Elsewhere away from Apple, Tom’s Hardware noted that Samsung, one of the major memory chip makers, just released its own earnings report, with executive VP Kim Jaejune warning that “significant shortfalls” across its memory products are expected to continue through at least 2027 (that is, until 2028). We’re told demand fulfillment rates are now at record lows, meaning Samsung is struggling to meet demand like never before.
Analysis: treacherous waters ahead
Samsung is not alone in ringing the alarm bells for memory, as one of the other three major chip makers in this arena, SK Hynix, warned in March that the RAM crisis will be a long shot – possibly its effects will be felt as far into the future as 2030. No matter how you look at it, there are warnings that the RAM 2028 crisis will continue or until the RAM 2028 crisis could be longer. Only the third major player in terms of memory manufacturers, Micron, has not yet issued a warning.
Apple’s situation obviously reinforces this message, and it will be interesting to see what kind of ‘options’ Tim Cook considers in terms of combating the lack of RAM supply and avoiding having to raise the prices of his Macs. Obviously, Apple has a lot of weight to throw around in terms of getting the best prices out of the supply chain, but at this point I’d imagine there’s some room to maneuver with contract negotiations even for the tech giants of the world.
Then again, after setting out the stable of MacBook Neo as a truly affordable laptop, Apple can’t exactly go back and raise prices on the special offer, so it looks like these could be tricky waters to navigate for Captain Cook – or more to the point, Captain Ternus, as it soon will be. It’s an interesting time to take control of Apple, that’s for sure.
Some residents of Reddit are definitely preparing for the worst, namely Mac price hikes. As the most upbeat comment on this thread in Apple’s subreddit stated: “Oh come on, we all know how Apple plans to ‘deal with the problem.’ No one needs the CEO to spell out the price increases Apple will make in the not-too-distant future.”
The best laptops for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
