# Apple hikes some prices by nearly 20% while Xbox raises console cost

_Thursday, July 9, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT · Products · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Apple hikes some prices by nearly 20% while Xbox raises console cost — Primary](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/4f1d/live/ee942300-70a0-11f1-a074-f75fb10ee765.jpg)

Apple raised prices on some laptops and tablets by nearly 20% and Xbox increased the cost of its consoles for the second time in less than a year, with both companies citing a components crisis driven by surging demand for memory and storage chips. Apple said it had never seen a component price increase this much this quickly, attributing the hikes to an extraordinary surge in demand for chips to power AI data centers. The company said it had shielded customers from increases so far but had reached a point where it needed to begin raising prices on a number of products including iPad and Mac. Affected hardware included the MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage, which rose to $1,999 from $1,699 on its US store, while in the UK the Neo laptop increased from 599 pounds to 699 pounds. Xbox said on Thursday that the price of its basic console will go up by $100 to $499 and the price of a console with more memory will go up by $150 to $749, with new prices taking effect from August. The Microsoft-owned company said it had hoped another price increase would not be necessary but blamed the rising cost of console storage and memory. Xbox previously hiked prices in October by $20 to $70, meaning the price of a new console will be 30% to 40% more expensive than it was this time last year. The company said the entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. It added that while the cost of memory and storage has already more than doubled it expects the costs to double again by 2027. Tech analyst Paolo Pescatore said Apple's price rises showed the AI boom was now affecting consumer electronics. David Naranjo of Counterpoint said he expected other PC and tablet brands would follow Apple by upping their costs. Dipanjan Chatterjee of Forrester said he believed Apple's loyal customer base would take the financial hit without too much outcry. Tim Cook, Apple's outgoing chief executive, had also hinted at the changes telling the Wall Street Journal earlier in June that price increases were unavoidable due to the unsustainable situation around memory chips.

## Sources

- [bbc.com](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ryj81ywlro)

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Retrieved: 2026-07-10T03:16:02.433Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)