Apple raised prices across the board on Thursday, pointing the finger at RAMageddon for what Apple CEO Tim Cook called an "unavoidable" response to rising memory and storage prices as demand for these components surged with the spread of AI data centers. The price hikes hit many Apple product lines, including the iPad, Mac, Apple TV, HomePod and VisionPro. Seemingly, only the iPhone and Apple Watch were spared.

What I'm most upset about is that Apple raised the price of its budget MacBook Neo. We finally got a MacBook built for student budgets, and in the blink of an eye, it's gone. The $499 Neo student pricing lasted about as long as a semester. 

Only three-and-a-half months after Apple drastically reduced the entry point for the MacBook, it's turned around and raised the price by $100. Now, the MacBook Neo starts at $699 at Apple, and students can get it for $599. (At the time of this writing, it's still available for $590 at Amazon.)

The cost of the step-up model with Touch ID and double the storage also went up by $100. It now costs $799, or $699 with Apple's education discount. (It's still $690 at Amazon.)

Is it really the RAM?

Apple and other computer-makers point to the surge in demand for memory and storage from AI data centers, called RAMageddon, as the reason for rising component prices, which have forced them to hike the price of the computers they sell. But with only 8GB of RAM and a modest 256GB SSD, the baseline MacBook Neo doesn't seem to merit a $100 increase. And given that the step-up model gets you only a 512GB SSD with no accompanying increase in memory, its $100 price hike feels steep, too.

I think Apple is hiding the real reason behind the Neo's price hike: It sold through its initial supply of Neos that used leftover iPhone processors and now must incur the added cost of manufacturing new A18 Pro chips to meet Neo demand. 

As previously reported, Apple was preparing a new production run of the MacBook Neo, increasing the number of units to 10 million from its initial run, estimated at 5 to 6 million. And the math changes for Apple if it no longer has a stash of A18 Pro chips it can borrow for this new Neo run.

I suspect RAMageddon is a convenient excuse for Apple to cover the added costs to make new Neos. Or at least, it's not the only reason for Apple raising the price of the Neo just a few months after its debut.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this theory.

Bigger increases for MacBook Air and Pro

What throws cold water on my Neo theory is that Apple slapped even larger price increases on the MacBook Air and Pro lines. The price of the MacBook Air went up by $200, and the MacBook Pro increased by $300. 

The 13-inch MacBook Air now starts at $1,299, and the 15-inch Air now starts at $1,499.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro now starts at $1,999, and the 16-inch Pro now starts at $2,999. 

The MacBook Air comes with a minimum of 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD, and the MacBook Pro comes with a minimum of 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. 

"We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly," Apple said in the statement. "We have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today's increases for iPad and Mac."

Neo vs. Air

As much as it hurts for students and their parents to pay $100 more for a MacBook Neo for school, you could try to console yourself by comparing that increase to the new pricing for the MacBook Air. With the Neo jumping from $599 to $699, and the Air jumping from $1,099 to $1,299, the gap between the two has widened. The Neo now costs $600 less than the cheapest Air.

While that reasoning might help justify being forced to pay more for a MacBook Neo, the $100 price increase still hurts anyone who's already facing the higher costs of higher education.

Other Macs are more expensive now, too

Apple's Mac desktops weren't spared. Pricing increased for the iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Studio.

Apple raised the price of the iMac by $200 to $1,499. It brought back the baseline M4 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage that it discontinued in May, but it returned with a $200 increase. The M4 Pro model also got hit with a $200 price hike. 

Those increases pale in comparison to what the Mac Studio received. The M4 Max model now starts at $2,499, up $500. And if you're sitting down, I'll tell you what the Mac Studio with the M3 Ultra chip now costs. It starts at $5,299, a staggering rise in price of $1,300.