The new MacBook Pro laptops are as much as $400 more expensive than their predecessors. Thank the RAM shortage.
The new MacBook Pro laptops are as much as $400 more expensive than their predecessors. Thank the RAM shortage.
Apple unveiled its latest slate of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops on Tuesday morning, and in the case of the MacBook Pro, the new hardware comes with the announcement of new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
The specs on the new chips are impressive, featuring an 18-core CPU that Apple says is over 4x the peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation. But consumers may be surprised to see the price of the new MacBook Pro devices, which are all between $100 and $400 more expensive than their previous models.
For the base MacBook Pro, which has an M5 Pro chip, prices start at $2,199 for the 14-inch model and $2,699 for the 16-inch models. That’s up from $1,999 and $2,499, respectively, for the M4 Pro versions released last year. The MacBook Pro models with the M5 Max chips start at a whopping $3,599 and $3,899 for the 14-inch and 16-inch models, respectively. That’s a full $400 more expensive than their predecesssors.
The price jump also affects the new MacBook Air laptops. The 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,099, up from $999. The 15-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,299, also up $100 from last year’s base model.
With the demands for more computers and data centers to power AI, the market is experiencing a shortage of RAM, causing memory prices to surge.
Analysts are already predicting that smartphone shipments will plummet this year as a result of the shortage. Naturally, other hardware like laptops would be impacted, too, and Apple’s pricing could serve as a bellwether for how much the sector will be affected.
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Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos.
You can contact or verify outreach from Amanda by emailing amanda@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at @amanda.100 on Signal.
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