Big shock to iPhone users, Apple hints at price hike

ISLAMABAD: A bad news has come for buyers of mobile phones from American technology company Apple as the company has hinted that the prices of its popular products iPhone, Mac and iPad may be increased in the coming months. The company’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook says that increasing prices has now become almost inevitable due to the continuous increase in production costs.

Tim Cook said in an interview with the famous newspaper Wall Street Journal that the prices of memory and storage chips used inside phones and computers have increased a lot in the market, which is why it is no longer possible for the company to sell at old prices. These are the important components that are used in smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Other major companies in the world of mobile and computers such as OnePlus and Nothing had already made their phones more expensive, but the Apple company did not increase prices for its customers for several months. Tim Cook openly admitted that raising prices is now beyond his control.

He said that unfortunately raising prices has now become inevitable, we are trying our best to reduce the impact of these high prices that are being imposed on us and we have also tried to protect our customers from this burden, but now the situation has become such that it cannot be handled anymore.

The real reason for this huge inflation is that the work of artificial intelligence, or AI, is growing very rapidly around the world. Big companies are making computers and systems that require very powerful chips. For this reason, chip factories are selling most of their equipment to these big companies, which has led to a shortage of chips for ordinary mobiles and computers and their prices have increased many times.

Tim Cook, while discussing this situation, further said that at the moment the supply of chips in the market is low, while on the other hand people want to buy new phones and computers, and chip manufacturers are putting a huge price burden on us.

He said in clear words that we need to bring the prices of memory and its supply back to a reasonable level for common people’s consumption, this is the most important thing.

Now the question is, which Apple products will be expensive first? The company has not yet clearly stated which phone or iPad will be expensive on which day, but there are reports that Mac computers and iPads may be affected first. Recently, the company had also increased the starting price of the Mac mini, which is being considered an indication of the upcoming policy.

In September this year, the company is going to launch its new phone, the iPhone 18 series, in the market. According to reports, Apple’s first foldable iPhone can also be introduced in this series. It is estimated that if Apple wants to maintain its current profitability, the price of a future iPhone Pro model may have to increase by about $ 270.

This inflation will also affect those who were hoping that the old iPhone 17 would become cheaper after the new iPhone 18 came out and they would buy it for less money. Usually, Apple makes old models cheaper after bringing a new phone, but this time due to the inflation of chips, the prices of old phones will not see such a big reduction in prices that they used to get every year.

Tim Cook, describing the current situation as extraordinary, said, ‘This is a situation like a flood in a century. I have never seen such a scene in more than 40 years in the technology supply chain.’