If you’ve been shopping for a new Mac, iPad or PC lately, you’ve probably noticed prices have moved — and not in the direction any of us would like. We want to be upfront about why, because this isn’t really a Geekworks decision, or even an Apple one. It’s a worldwide shortage of computer memory, and it’s pushing up the price of every brand on the shelf.
What’s actually going on
Two of the most important ingredients in any computer are RAM (the memory your Mac uses to run apps) and NAND flash (the storage in your SSD, where all your files live). Both are made by just a handful of factories worldwide — chiefly Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.
Over the past year, the artificial-intelligence boom has swallowed an enormous share of that production. The companies building AI data centres — Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon and the rest — are buying memory in staggering quantities and paying premium prices for it. Faced with that demand, the chip makers have steered their factories toward the high-margin memory those AI servers need, leaving far less for the chips that go into everyday laptops, phones and SSDs.
When demand outstrips supply by that much, prices climb — fast.
The numbers are genuinely eye-watering
This isn’t a small bump:
- RAM (DRAM) prices rose by roughly 90–98% in the first quarter of 2026 alone, and industry tracker TrendForce expects another ~50–60% rise this quarter.
- Storage (NAND flash) has more than doubled over the past year, and every major maker has reported their entire 2026 production is already sold out.
- Memory now makes up around 35% of what it costs to build a laptop, up from the 16–20% it used to be.
To put it bluntly: the raw materials inside every computer have become dramatically more expensive in a very short space of time.
This is happening to everyone
This is the part worth holding onto — it is not an Apple problem, it’s an everyone problem.
Dell raised its prices 15–20% in late 2025. Lenovo followed in January. HP, Acer, Samsung and LG have all done the same, with laptop prices across the major brands up somewhere between 15% and 30% this year. Right across the board, the cost of a new computer has gone up because the memory inside it has gone up.
Where Apple fits in
A quick note for Mac owners: on a Mac, the RAM is unified memory built right into the Apple Silicon chip rather than slotted in separately. But it’s still DRAM — the very same type of memory chip, made by the same manufacturers — so Macs are caught in exactly the same shortage. In fact, Apple is one of the largest buyers of this memory in the world, so when DRAM prices climb, Apple’s costs climb with them.
Apple actually held the line longer than most. While other manufacturers were passing the cost straight on from late 2025, Apple absorbed it for months — keeping prices steady well into 2026 — before finally raising Mac and iPad prices, saying it could no longer shield customers from the soaring cost of memory and storage chips.
That increase has now flowed through to both the starting prices and the cost of RAM and storage upgrades. As an Apple Authorised Reseller, we price at Apple’s recommended retail price, so you’ll see those same figures in our store. Importantly, nothing about what you get has changed — you’re still buying a genuine, brand-new Apple product, backed by authorised service and genuine-parts repairs right here in Brisbane.
Our honest take — and a bit of hope
We won’t pretend to know exactly when this eases. Most analysts expect the memory market to stay tight into 2027 and possibly beyond, because new factory capacity takes years to come online.
But there’s a reasonable case for cautious optimism. Apple resisted raising prices far longer than its competitors, which tells you it wasn’t done lightly — and our genuine hope is that this is a one-time correction to reflect today’s costs, rather than the first of many. If the memory market settles, prices should stabilise rather than keep climbing.
Thinking about a new Mac, or an upgrade?
A few practical thoughts:
- If you’ve been weighing up a purchase, prices are unlikely to fall in the near term — so there’s little to gain by waiting for a dip.
- Choose the memory and storage you’ll actually need up front. On a Mac, memory and storage are built in when you buy — you can’t add more later — so it’s worth picking a little more than you think you’ll need, especially now that the build-to-order cost of extra RAM and storage has gone up too.
- If your current Mac is just feeling slow, a repair, battery or storage upgrade is often a far cheaper way to get more life out of it than replacing it — and we’re happy to take a look and give you honest advice.
As always, no appointment is necessary — drop into our Coorparoo store and we’ll talk you through the options.
Geekworks is an Apple Authorised Service Provider and Reseller in Coorparoo, Brisbane. Figures in this article reflect the global memory market as of mid-2026 and draw on reporting from industry trackers including TrendForce and Counterpoint Research.