Apple raises Mac and iPad prices due to chip shortage By Investing.com - Investing.com South Africa

Apple's decision to raise prices on Mac and iPad products due to chip shortages reflects the severe challenges facing the semiconductor industry and the profound impact of supply chain disruptions on ... Read original →

Apple’s Mac and iPad price hikes reveal deeper vulnerabilities in its reliance on advanced-node semiconductors. Technically, this accelerates OEM migration toward RISC-V or custom SoCs, eroding the pricing power of general-purpose chip ecosystems. Regulatory risks—U.S. export controls and over-concentration of foundry capacity in Taiwan, China—force Apple to build costly supply chain redundancies. Competitively, Samsung and Huawei may leverage in-house silicon narratives, while Microsoft likely delays Surface premiumization to avoid consumer backlash. Over the next 12–24 months, expect a structural shift: industry-wide diversification away from single-source suppliers, modular chip design adoption, and regional back-end capacity expansion across mainland China and Southeast Asia. Apple’s pricing power is transitioning from brand premium to supply-chain-resilience premium—marking the end of the golden era of frictionless consumer electronics pricing.