Tim Cook says Apple price increases are 'unavoidable' due to memory crunch

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal , Apple's outgoing CEO all but confirmed that higher prices are on the way for the company's products. "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," Tim Cook told the publication. "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."

Unfortunately, Cook didn't offer any specifics about either the amount prices will go up or when. With WWDC 2026 in the books, Apple is just a few months away from announcing its iPhone 18 lineup. It seems very likely those devices will be more expensive than the prior generation. Same goes for any new laptops and tablets Apple unveils this year. And given the industry's ongoing struggles to source components, courtesy of the surging demand from AI development, Apple's current product lineup may not escape a jump in prices.

"There's less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases," he said. "We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That's the bottom line."

Cook's interview was typically diplomatic. It seems likely he opted to be the one delivering the bad news rather than having for his successor, John Ternus , take the heat for the coming price hike. He also acknowledged how extreme the market for RAM and storage has gotten: "I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years."

Apple is hardly the first tech company to make essentially this same announcement. Samsung , HP , Microsoft , Nintendo and Valve have all addressed the impact of soaring RAM costs and demand over the past few months.