Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Apple says price increases are "unavoidable." Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal that Apple can no longer absorb the rising cost of memory and storage and will start passing it on to customers. He didn't say which products or by how much, but he called the situation "unsustainable."
I want to talk about both halves of that statement. First, the part that's true: there's a real global memory shortage right now, driven by AI data centers buying up the world's DRAM and NAND because high-bandwidth memory for GPUs carries far better margins. The big three memory makers reallocated their capacity toward it, prices spiked hard, and relief isn't expected until 2027 or 2028. So Cook isn't lying about the cause.
Then the part he leaves out: a real cost increase and a fully justified price increase are not the same thing. Apple's margins were already premium long before any shortage, and its storage upgrade pricing has always sat well above the actual cost of the memory involved. "Unavoidable" really means unavoidable without touching the margin target. "Unsustainable" means unsustainable for that target, not for the company.
And the timing is worth noting: this message lands right before John Ternus takes over as CEO on September 1, and right before the next iPhone launch.
Source: MacRumors / The Wall Street Journal interview with Tim Cook (June 2026)
#Apple #TimCook #TechNews #AppleNews #MemoryShortage
Apple says price increases are "unavoidable." Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal that Apple can no longer absorb the rising cost of memory and storage and will start passing it on to customers. He didn't say which products or by how much, but he called the situation "unsustainable."
I want to talk about both halves of that statement. First, the part that's true: there's a real global memory shortage right now, driven by AI data centers buying up the world's DRAM and NAND because high-bandwidth memory for GPUs carries far better margins. The big three memory makers reallocated their capacity toward it, prices spiked hard, and relief isn't expected until 2027 or 2028. So Cook isn't lying about the cause.
Then the part he leaves out: a real cost increase and a fully justified price increase are not the same thing. Apple's margins were already premium long before any shortage, and its storage upgrade pricing has always sat well above the actual cost of the memory involved. "Unavoidable" really means unavoidable without touching the margin target. "Unsustainable" means unsustainable for that target, not for the company.
And the timing is worth noting: this message lands right before John Ternus takes over as CEO on September 1, and right before the next iPhone launch.
Source: MacRumors / The Wall Street Journal interview with Tim Cook (June 2026)
#Apple #TimCook #TechNews #AppleNews #MemoryShortage
