ThomasP

Apple just RAISED MacBook prices for the first time in a few years. Samsung did the exact same thing last week. Something much bigger is happening behind the scenes. The new MacBook Air M5 starts at $1,099 and that's $100 more than last year. The MacBook Pro with M5 Pro jumps from $1,999 to $2,199. Apple says you're getting more value but here is what they're not telling you. A week ago, Samsung raised the Galaxy S26 to $899, up from $799. "Higher price, but more storage." Two of the biggest tech companies in the world made the same move within days of each other. The real story isn't about Apple or Samsung, it's about memory chips. SSD prices have doubled, RAM prices have surged up to 500%. Enterprise storage costs are up 257% in less than a year. The global supply of memory is being devoured. By whom? Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google. They're spending $700 billion this year building AI data centers. They need every chip they can get. And they're outbidding everyone including Apple and Samsung, for the supply. Manufacturers like SK Hynix and Samsung's own chip division have made a choice. They're shifting production away from consumer memory and toward high-margin AI chips. The result is less supply for your laptop, phone, cloud storage. Expect 15 to 20 percent price hikes across the board. Apple held out as long as it could and the $999 MacBook Air was a landmark price. That era is now over. You're paying more for your devices because the biggest companies on Earth are hoarding every memory chip on the planet to power artificial intelligence. And analysts say this won't ease up until at least 2027. Welcome to the new normal.

I just followed Jimmy’s Seafood. 🇺🇸