Apple tech such as the iPhone is set to be way more expensive over the next couple of years. We already know about price rises so far this year, but a new report suggests that Apple’s chip maker may raise prices by up to 10% next year, which will have an inevitable knock-on effect on prices for consumers.
Apple’s chips are mostly made by Taiwan firm TSMC and according to financial site Nikkei Asia, the company is planning significant price rises from 2027 because of rising demand and to absorb increasing costs for materials and manufacturing facilities. TSMC’s customers include AMD, Nvidia and MediaTek as well as Apple.
Of course, a significant portion of this kind of cost increase has to be laid squarely at the door of AI – the chipmaker is set to charge companies an even higher premium if they need more chips than they originally ordered. That could mean a 10-15% premium on top of the extra charge – so some chips could be hiked up to 25%. In reality that is unlikely to affect Apple because it tends to order a lot and sell a lot, but reports suggested it did get caught out by the demand for the MacBook Neo and its A19 Pro chip, so it’s possible some Apple products could be affected by that if a particular device sells better than expected.
The price rises are set to disproportionally affect older tech compared to newer since TSMC looks set to charge more to keep older tech on sale – perhaps because these cost more to produce. It probably means that some products that would have continued using older chip technologies such as smart TVs or set top boxes will be updated to newer chip designs quicker than they otherwise would have.
Apple has recently revealed a new lease plan for gadgets called Apple Upgrade (US-only at present), but while the company maintains it is a “more flexible way to pay for products” it has to be seen as an attempt to mitigate against rising costs for consumers ahead of what will probably be a more expensive set of iPhones including the iPhone Fold.
Read the full article here
