Apple scrambles to handle component price hikes
Apple execs are now acknowledging the company is going to need to raises prices to cope with higher component costs, particularly memory. Apple has been battling to avoid doing so, but warned this week that those efforts are “unsustainable.” The price pressure is being felt across the tech industry. Omdia predicts the average selling price (ASP) of smartphones globally will increase by around 20% this year — partly because AI industry demands have pushed up RAM prices and partly because of rapid cost increases in processor production as a direct consequence of war in the Middle East. This impacts anything that uses memory or processors. Apple must raise prices, CEO warns “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” current Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal. OK, so prices are going to go up. But how? If Apple must raise prices,