Summary

• Apple (AAPL) faces rising hardware costs due to AI-driven memory and storage shortages, prompting imminent price hikes on products.
• The MacBook Neo's strong launch and budget focus are boosting near-term sales, but frontloading may lead to a subsequent cooling period.
• AAPL's hardware dependence makes it more vulnerable than peers, with valuation metrics showing the stock as expensive but not unreasonably so.
• I downgrade AAPL to hold, citing elevated component costs and potential demand restraint, though near-term performance remains solid.

Price hikes are coming, dear Apple (AAPL) fans (love my MacBook Air, for the record). Speculation started spreading some weeks ago that Apple would likely hike prices owing to a memory

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