Apple has kept prices stable for existing models, but is rumored to be paying 50% more for DRAM in 2026, which may impact pricing of new Apple devices that will be launched in 2026.
edit: https://hanchouhsu.substack.com/p/overview-of-the-memory-mar...
> The full-year price increase for Samsung’s storage products supplied to Apple in 2026 has been finalized, with DRAM prices rising by 53% and NAND prices rising by 52%. Earlier rumors suggesting an 80% full-year increase for DRAM were inaccurate.. Apple negotiated the prices down to the aforementioned levels and signed long-term agreements (LTAs).. Kioxia also signed a similar agreement with Apple, with price increases consistent with Samsung’s.
Apple may be a good deal now, but historically they have been the expensive option. I would be concerned about the rug pull of spending time training people on macOS, setting the expectation that they will have it in the future, and then Apple returning to premium pricing before the next upgrade cycle.
At least with Windows you have several hardware vendors competing to force market rate pricing.
There are several good reasons to choose Apple, but I question the wisdom of choosing them for price.
Hard to know for sure, I'd be curious the breakdown in cost for enterprise laptops, it's hard for me to understand why the price has increased 50% while Apple has increased 10%.
Lenovo, Dell and HP are pretty much all the same price at this point. It's basically an oligopoly.
The prices have crept up over the past 5 years and they have no reason to lower them. They know they aren't even competing with Apple since most large enterprises are all in on Windows.
My bet is they have basically made their prices the same as Apple, and they plan to keep it that way.
If you have the freedom to buy from Best Buy, Amazon, etc, this is certainly the case.
However, depending on how you procure this hasn’t been the experience for over 20 years. By the time you’re done with CDW or whomever is your VAR, you’re not comparing a $600 basic PC laptop to a $1200 basic Mac Laptop. They know you’re like the GP and going to pay $1500 minimum and are probably game for $2000. They sell the “Business” line with whatever terms added.
When I did this in K12 in the late 00s the price for a truly terrible Dell or IBM/Lenovo was the same as an iMac.
For the corporate world there have been times you couldn’t get Virtualization support, hardware dock ports, and various other bits of support until you moved to buying the “Business” line and after a certain number of units the direct to retail options send you down the VAR path. There’s simply too much money involved for them to make it easier for you.
I have not had to deal with this as a buyer since 2019 but the song seems to be the same as I work for a company that sells through CDW. Per the reps, the same stupid games are being played.
The only times I haven’t had to deal with this is when the companies I’ve worked for just hand you a credit card to walk down to the Apple Store or are using Apple’s program which is basically the same thing but comes with a shared App Store account and some better support for swap outs.
Historically they've been the expensive option, but historically they've been much more niche than windows laptops. So their unit economics might be better nowadays due to volume.
If Apple can keep the price near $1500 for the M5, it will still be a no brainer. They are currently $200 cheaper, granted for less memory. I also am in the camp of you don't need quite as much memory on Apple, our most significant usage is Chrome, Excel and Teams.
My main reason Apple can charge slightly more: Better performance, screen, battery, camera, microphone, and trackpad.
In my last job, I just bought my own laptops for a variety of reasons. Know that may not work for everyone. Also for a variety of reasons. But worked dor me.
Apple is rumored to have long term price controlled contracts for DRAM. That would fit their 20 year MO
I read this recently, made me chuckle:
"Man, I wish Apple ram upgrades were priced like the rest of industry"
<monkey paw curls>
I didn't even think about that, all the reviewers were in a fury about soldered RAM... and now almost everyone is soldered. It's a shame.
What I really hate is you don't even get the main benefit - high bandwidth and low latency. They are just soldering lpddr5x RAM which doesn't really need to be.
Fairly long history of Apple doing something anti-consumer and then all other manufactures following their lead. Same with non-replacable batteries, no headphone jack, have to pay extra for a charger, etc.
So soldering RAM is all about being “anti consumer” and has nothing to do with the much better bandwidth?
Not to mention that iPhones work with any standard Bluetooth headphones and USV C standard headphones.
The average person isn't upgrading their RAM. The average person might want to use headphones.
And the average person buys Bluetooth headphones and USB C headphones
Been debating about buying a Mac mini to replace my old iMac--which I don't use at this point. Have a newish MacBook Pro but it's not the best ergonomic choice to use with a big monitor.
Had a new mini for 6 months. Was great. Only sold because of lifestyle changing to more of a laptop setup.
Sort of where I am. Have good laptop and not sure I really have a need for a dedicated desktop.