Apple Just Raised Their Prices Again, And Nobody Noticed

Apple giveth and Apple taketh away, some consumers may remark after today’s double-edge news regarding the new product lineup.

Today, Apple gave consumers what they have been clamoring for. Apple announced a new Mac mini, MacBook Air, and iPad Pro. The first two products were languishing for so long that many pundits thought it likely that Apple would end them altogether.

But Apple did not do so, instead opting to reinvigorate these product lines. They gave the devotees of those products most of what they had been asking for. But while they were giving with the one hand, the tech giants were taking away with the other. Besides features that Apple actually took away from these newest iterations — such as the headphone jack from the iPad Pro — Apple also demanded more of your hard earned money in return, as Reuters reports.

Every one of Apple’s announced products are more expensive than the ones that they replace. This has been a pattern for Apple over the last couple of years. There is no sign of it slowing either, industry insiders suggest.

Originally, you could buy the Mac mini at three price points. The starting price was $499, and moved upwards to $599. But today, there are only two price points. The entry level model starts at $799, featuring a Core i3 and a 128 gigabyte solid state drive. The more expensive mini — with Apple’s hybrid Fusion Drive — used to be $999. That tier will now set you back $1,099.

One of the greatest things about the old MacBook Air was its starting price of $999. As it happens, that is still the case. Apple decided to keep the legacy model in the product line to have something that would hit that price point — but the new MacBook Air starts at $1,199.

At $799, the smaller iPad Pro sets prospective buyers back by as much as the larger model used to cost. The larger unit now starts at $999. Those who opt for built in LTE capability will see the cost rise by an additional $150. Said option in the former model cost just $129. Max out the storage and you will pay a substantial sum of $1,899 — before adding in the new Apple Pencil or pricier keyboard.

Even the accessories are more expensive this year. The Smart Keyboard for the 12.9 inch iPad Pro is now $199. The Apple Pencil also experienced price inflation — moving from an MSRP of $99 to one of $129. That means if you want to live the iPad Pro life to the fullest, it could cost you a princely sum of $2,228.

Last month, Apple did the same thing with their other offerings — the iPhone and the Apple Watch. The base model iPhone is now resting at the price point that the Plus models used to adopt. And the Apple Watch with LTE connectivity went from $430 last year to $500 in this wave.

It remains to be seen whether Apple fans will balk at the increased pricing strategy, but given past performance and strong market indicators, it does not seem exceedingly likely.