Apple spared its most popular products from today's price hikes, but the company's own statement suggests the reprieve is temporary. Apple raised prices across its Mac, iPad, HomePod mini, and Vision Pro lineups on June 25, briefly taking its online store offline before returning with updated pricing. The HomePod mini now costs $129 instead of $99.
The iPad Air starts at $749, up from $599. The iPad Pro now starts at $1,199 instead of $999.
MacBook Neo, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Studio all saw increases.
Customers shopping for an iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, or AirTag saw no change. Apple applied the increases to selected hardware, not the full lineup.
CEO Tim Cook blamed soaring memory and storage chip prices, calling the shortage a "hundred-year flood" and saying Apple could no longer shield customers from those costs. The company had flagged the increases on June 17, warning it planned to raise prices after absorbing higher component costs for as long as possible. But today's moves may be just the opening act.
In a statement to multiple outlets including Bloomberg, Apple said:
"We have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today's increases for iPad and Mac."
The phrasing, "begin raising prices" and "including today's increases", signals that more products will follow. The most likely targets are the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, all of which were spared today.
The iPhone's exemption is strategic. Apple typically introduces new iPhones in the fall, so adjusting prices now would mean changing the cost of its flagship product just months before the iPhone 18 launch. A more likely scenario: price increases arrive with the new models.
A JP Morgan research note cited by analyst Max Weinbach suggests those increases could be modest. The report projects iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max prices rising by no more than $50, far below the $200 to $300 hikes some analysts had predicted.
Earlier estimates from TechInsights had suggested Apple might need to raise prices by as much as $270 to maintain profit margins. The Wall Street Journal projected the iPhone 18 Pro could start at $1,399 or higher.
JP Morgan believes Apple will absorb much of the component cost pressure rather than pass it to consumers, looking for savings through greater use of in-house technologies like its C-series modem platform.
Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro lineup in September, alongside the foldable iPhone Ultra. For products that got today's price increases, the higher costs are effective immediately. For iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods buyers, the bill comes due later this year.
