Apple UK Mac and iPad Prices Rise by Up to £1,300

Apple raised UK list prices across almost its entire Mac and iPad range on Thursday 25 June, adding between £100 and £1,300 to devices that had been available for less the day before.

The company made the changes without an event or advance announcement. Its online store briefly went offline on Thursday morning, then returned with the new prices in place. Apple says the increase is linked to a global shortage of memory and storage chips, as demand from AI data centres pushes up component costs.

The biggest single rise landed on the M3 Ultra Mac Studio, which is now £1,300 more expensive — a 32.5% jump. At the more affordable end, the MacBook Neo has gone from £599 to £699 despite being less than three months old. No additional memory or storage has been added to justify the higher price: buyers are paying more for the same hardware.

Macs and iPads are affected, but iPhones are not

The changes cover MacBook Neo, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini and Mac Studio models, alongside the iPad Air and iPad Pro. Apple TV 4K, HomePod, HomePod mini and Vision Pro prices also increased.

Not every Apple product has been caught in this round. iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods pricing was unchanged on 25 June.

The Mac Studio line has been hit especially hard, both in cash terms and as a percentage. The M3 Ultra version had already seen higher-memory configurations withdrawn earlier in the year, and its latest £1,300 rise is the largest confirmed increase.

There are sharp increases lower down the range too. The entry-level iPad and iPad mini both rose by around a fifth, while the iPad Air — Apple’s volume seller — is now £150 to £200 dearer depending on screen size.

A confirmed MacBook Pro example shows how the changes affect professional buyers. The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max, 36GB of memory and a 2TB SSD increased from £3,899 to £4,399, a £500 jump, based on prices checked on 26 June.

Apple says the memory market has become unsustainable

Apple had previously used its buying power and inventory buffers to limit the effect of rising component costs. Earlier MacBook Air and MacBook Pro updates increased prices alongside upgraded specifications, meaning customers received more storage or memory for their money.

This time, the company has passed on the costs directly. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on 17 and 18 June, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said: “Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable. 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.”

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

Cook described the AI-driven demand for memory chips as comparable to “a hundred-year flood”, and said: “I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.” Apple also told Bloomberg that it knows the rises are “not welcome news” and is working to find solutions.

The pressure comes from what the industry has theatrically dubbed “RAM-ageddon”: a shortage affecting DRAM, the memory used in virtually every modern technology product, and NAND storage. TrendForce said DRAM prices rose by as much as 98% in the first three months of 2026.

Memory manufacturers are expanding capacity, but much of the additional output is expected to prioritise server chips. Samsung has warned that significant shortages across its memory products could continue through at least 2027, while SK Hynix said in March that the effects could stretch as far as 2030.

Why it matters for UK buyers

The MacBook Neo’s £100 increase is modest beside a £1,300 Mac Studio rise, but it could be the more consequential change for ordinary shoppers. The Neo was positioned as Apple’s answer to a cheap Windows laptop, and £699 is a notably tougher sell than £599 for buyers shopping to a fixed budget.

The awkward part is timing. These are not newly launched models with better screens, chips or capacities. A Mac that cost one price on Wednesday became more expensive on Thursday. That makes the increase feel more immediate than a higher price attached to a new generation.

Some third-party retailers may still have listings closer to the old recommended prices while existing stock lasts. But as Apple’s own prices rise and supply of new devices tightens, those gaps are likely to disappear.

More rises could follow

Apple is not alone: Samsung, Microsoft, Sony and Dell have already raised prices, while Sony’s PlayStation 5 consoles have seen a second price hike within a year. Gartner analyst Ranjit Atwal said: “Even Apple can't be safe, as much as they have all the expertise and long-term planning, and everything else.”

Attention will now turn to the iPhone 18, expected in September. Analysts expect iPhone prices to rise in autumn 2026, though Apple has not announced pricing. JP Morgan research suggests a $50 to $100 increase for Pro models, while other projections put potential increases higher depending on the model.

Gartner forecasts no meaningful relief until late 2027. For UK shoppers, that means delaying a purchase may not necessarily produce a cheaper Apple device — especially if memory costs continue to flow from AI data centres into consumer technology.