I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like your Apple products are about to get significantly more expensive.
According to Nikkei Asia, Apple’s new chips will cost more to manufacture, which means the tech giant could pass on those growing costs to customers.
As it turns out, Apple’s main chip supplier, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), is currently hiking up its prices after the global chip shortage has sparked inflation across the tech industry. Unfortunately, this means that Apple and other tech companies will likely be paying more for chips as the manufacturers try to maintain a profit margin.
This is particularly interesting considering TSMC’s chips are already approximately 20 per cent more expensive than other chips on the market.
Basically, clients like Apple (as well as other tech companies like Nvidia and AMD) have until October 1 to negotiate their own personal deals with the manufacturing giant before the new prices take effect.
Considering TSMC has a pretty significant backlog of existing orders currently, we aren’t expected to really feel the brunt of the price hikes until 2022.
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When it is eventually passed on to consumers, it is expected to be pretty significant, with Nikkei asserting that the increase will be “noticeable”. Experts have speculated, however, that it will impact higher-end models first in an attempt to minimise and offset the impact on the price points of entry-level devices.
According to DigiTimes reports as recently as last month, the iPhone 13 could be among the devices to cop a significant price increase. Apple is yet to confirm this, however.
Considering Apple hasn’t even announced its events for the rest of 2021, it’s unclear when — if at all — the company will choose to hike up its prices, and which products will be hit the hardest.
Apple is yet to comment on the speculation.