Apple and Microsoft Raise Hardware Prices Simultaneously, AI Chip Demand Drives Up Storage Costs, Triggering Wave of Consumer Electronics Price Increases

BlockBeats News, June 26th, Apple and Microsoft have successively announced price hikes for their hardware products, a move that the market interprets as the AI computing power demand driving up storage chip costs, ultimately transmitting an early signal to the consumer end.

On the Apple side, the starting price of the MacBook Neo has been raised from $599 to $699, the MacBook Air increased to $1,299, and the MacBook Pro hiked to $1,999; the price of the iPad Pro has been significantly raised from $999 to $1,199, and the iPad Air has also been raised to $749.

On the Microsoft side, a few hours after Apple announced the price increase, Microsoft promptly followed suit, citing the rise in storage chip costs to raise the prices of the Xbox series game consoles: the Xbox Series S 512GB increased by $100 to $499, the Xbox Series S 1TB and Xbox Series X 1TB both increased by $150, adjusted to $599 and $799, respectively, and the Xbox Series X Digital Edition also rose to $749.

Analysts point out that the underlying reason for this round of price increases is that the large-scale AI capital expenditure continues to drive up the demand for storage chips such as HBM and NAND, leading to a tightening supply and cost escalation for consumer electronics chips. The two tech giants successively announcing price hikes on their hardware products in a short period are seen by the market as the "AI-triggered surge in consumer electronics prices" starting point, and whether other hardware manufacturers will follow suit will be closely watched.