Apple dropped a bombshell this morning that absolutely no one saw coming. While we were all anticipating announcements for their 2026 Back-to-School deals, Apple played a bit of a dirty trick instead. Personally, I’ve been working on an M2 MacBook Pro and hoping to upgrade to an M5 with extra RAM and storage to handle AI and LLMs. Because of that, I’ve been refreshing Amazon Prime Day deals every single hour.
Here at Thrifle, we’ve always praised Apple products for the value they provide, especially the MacBook Air. They are long-lasting, highly stable machines that offer a much cleaner, more premium experience than a PC. (Sorry PC users, we still love you—just not when we're struggling to find our files). Much to our surprise, though, Apple quietly raised prices across nearly its entire lineup. If you've been eyeing a new Mac, iPad, or HomePod, the sticker shock is very real. But there is a silver lining hiding in this supply-chain chaos, and it has Prime Day written all over it.
Why is Apple doing this?
It's tempting to assume Apple is just being Apple, but the reason is bigger than one company. CEO Tim Cook had already warned a week earlier that price increases were "unavoidable," pointing to a global shortage of memory and storage chips. He even described the shortage as a "hundred-year flood," saying he'd never seen anything like it. The culprit is surging demand from AI infrastructure, which has sent memory component costs soaring across the entire tech industry.
This is a real shift for Apple, which has historically absorbed component cost swings rather than passing them to customers. And it isn't an Apple-only story — other tech giants are reportedly raising prices for the same reason, and Apple's own stock fell around 6% on the news, its worst day in over a year. In other words, these hikes hurt Apple too. This is a supply-chain squeeze, not a Prime Day power play.
Every affected product and configuration
Apple's online store briefly went down and came back with higher prices across Macs, iPads, the Apple TV, HomePod, HomePod mini, and Vision Pro. Below is the full breakdown of every affected model and configuration, with current Apple Store pricing. The iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, Studio Display, and accessories like the Apple Pencil were left untouched — at least for now.
By the numbers: across the main product lines, the increases averaged around $249. The Mac Studio took the biggest hit — $1,300 more than before — while the Apple TV jumped the most in percentage terms, up 54%. Even the smallest increase, on the HomePod mini, added $30.
Every price change, ranked
Showing 26 configurations
How to read this: base-model old → new prices are confirmed from press coverage of the June 25, 2026 increase. Upgrade prices (extra RAM, storage, cellular), marked ≈, use Apple's standard tier pricing and may differ slightly by configuration — always confirm the final price on apple.com before buying.
Sources: MacRumors · 9to5Mac · Apple explains why
Here's the twist: Prime Day is now the deal of the year
This is where it gets interesting for bargain hunters. Apple raised prices on its own store — but Amazon hasn't followed suit yet. That means right now, during Prime Day, you can still buy many Apple products at their old prices, often with an additional Prime Day discount stacked on top.
Deal trackers across the web are already flagging this window. Shoppers are reportedly finding M5 MacBook Air discounts of up to $450, and iPads and AirPods are seeing some of their best pricing of the year. For a brief moment, the gap between Apple's new prices and Amazon's lingering old prices creates a genuine opportunity — buy now, save twice.
The catch is that nobody knows how long it lasts. Once Amazon and other retailers refresh their pricing to match Apple's new MSRP, that double discount disappears. Historically, retailers don't sit on outdated pricing for long, so this overlap could be a matter of days.
What you should do right now
If a new Apple device was already on your shortlist, the math has rarely been clearer. The same product that costs more directly from Apple today may still be sitting at a discount at another retailer. That's especially true for the products that took the biggest hikes — Macs, iPads, and the Apple TV.
A few quick tips: compare the Amazon price against Apple's new official price, not last week's, to see your true savings. Prioritize the items with the largest increases, since those are where the Prime Day gap is widest. And don't wait for a "better" deal that may not come — with prices climbing industry-wide, today's pricing might be the best you'll see for a while.
The bottom line
Apple raising prices on Prime Day sounds like a buzzkill, and for anyone shopping directly at Apple, it is. But the accidental result is one of the most shopper-friendly windows in recent memory: Apple's prices went up, but many retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, haven't caught up, and Prime Day discounts are still (Partially) live. I was able to find an Open-box MacBook M5 Max 36GB/2TB. If you really need a Mac, now might be the last chance to grab the last ones for the "old price".
Apple Back to School discounts will be live next week. I seriously hope that with this crazy price spike today, Apple offers more than just AirPods and $100 to students. Inflation is hitting hard and our students don't need any more financial burden they already carry. We will create another article covering Back to School later.
Check out our other blogs about Apple:
When It’s Smart to Buy From Apple Store or Apple.com — And When It’s Not
Apple Student & Military discounts
Trending Apple Deals
