Expert Issues Warning for Apple, iPhone Customers
It's no secret that Apple has been impacted by the supply shortage of memory and storage chips throughout the world is causing issues for tech companies, and it sounds like that's about to start impacting prices for Apple customers.
Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the company would indeed be forced to raise its prices as a result of the chip shortage. While Cook did not indicate exactly when these price increases might happen, one expert has warned Apple customers that these price hikes are likely coming quite soon.
Apple Confirms Price Increases
During an interview with the Wall Street Journal this week, Cook quietly admitted that price increases are on the way, calling them "unavoidable" given the market for memory and storage chips.
Over the past several months, AI companies have been furiously buying up these chips to fuel the AI race, and it's created shortages for consumer products. Cook compared the current chip shortage to a "hundred-year flood" as he confirmed that price hikes are on the way.
"I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years," Cook told The Wall Street Journal in an article published on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," he said. "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."
Cook explained that there is simply less supply of memory and storage chips for consumer products, with the AI companies buying up all the storage to use for their purposes.
"There's less supply at a time when consumers want devices and memory guys are passing along huge price increases," Cook said. "We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That's the bottom line."
Sooner Rather Than Later
While Cook did not specify when exactly these price hikes would be coming, one expert is warning customers that he believes they will be coming soon.
In a post on X this week, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, who covers Apple for the outlet, warned that he believes the looming price hikes are "fairly imminent" after Cook's confirmation.
"Regarding Apple price hikes, have to imagine these are fairly imminent," Gurman wrote in a post on X. "No other reason to flag them now."
Gurman went on to speculate that Apple could pair these price increases with its annual back to school sale, creating sort of a buffer period where the prices are indeed increased, but the sale brings them temporarily lower.
Regardless, Gurman warns that the price hikes will in the near future, not a few months.
"Either way this is happening soon. Not a fall thing," he warned.
Needless to say, if you're in the market for a new Apple device, it sounds like the time to buy is now, not later, as prices will not be getting any cheaper.
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published June 20, 2026 at 1:06 PM.