RAMaggedon claims another.
In an interview with The Wall Street JournalApple’s outgoing CEO has all but confirmed that higher prices are on the way for the company’s products. “Unfortunately, price increases are inevitable,” Tim Cook told the publication. “We are doing our best to mitigate the huge increases imposed on us and we are trying to protect our customers from these increases, but the situation has become untenable.”
Unfortunately, Cook gave no details on how much and when prices will increase. With WWDC 2026 in the books, Apple is just months away from announcing its iPhone 18 lineup. It seems very likely that these devices will be more expensive than the previous generation. The same goes for all the new laptops and tablets Apple has unveiled this year. And given the industry’s current difficulties in sourcing components due to growing demand for AI development, Apple’s current product lineup may not escape price increases.
“There is less supply at a time when consumers want devices and memory makers are passing on huge price increases,” he said. “We absolutely need memory prices and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.”
Cook’s interview was typically diplomatic. It seems likely that he chose to deliver the bad news rather than let his successor, John Ternus, take the lead on the coming price rise. He also acknowledged how extreme the RAM and storage market has become: “I haven’t seen anything like this in any area in over 40 years.”
Apple isn’t the first tech company to make essentially the same announcement. Samsung, HP, Microsoft, Nintendo and Valve have all addressed the impact of soaring RAM costs and demand in recent months.
