When Apple released the 15-inch MacBook Air at WWDC, no one was surprised that the new laptop was simply a larger version of the 13-inch MacBook Air with a slightly larger screen, trackpad, and body. What was surprising was the price: instead of adding $200 or $300 to the price of the existing MacBook Air, making the new model $1,399 or $1,499, Apple priced the new MacBook Air at $1,299 and reduced the price of the 13-inch model by $100. .
And if you dig, the price is even more surprising. The 15-inch Air starts with the “full” M2 Pro processor with 10 GPU cores, which is a $100 upgrade over the 13-inch MacBook Air. That means the 15-inch MacBook Air costs the same as the 13-inch MacBook Air in May. That’s what we call a good surprise.
Does this mean Apple is rethinking its pricing strategy? Maybe. Then again, Apple also announced the $6,999 Mac Pro and the $3,499 Vision Pro, the two most expensive products in its catalog. Still, it’s hard not to wonder if the MacBook Air’s aggressive pricing is the start of a new trend.
This brings us to the iPhone 15 Pro. Reports have been circulating for months that Apple plans to raise the price of the Pro models. Just this week, in fact, China-based Economic Daily News reported that the phones could cost up to $200 more than the equivalent iPhone 14 Pro models, which means the iPhone 15 Pro Max could start at $1,299 and go up to $1,800 or more. if Apple offers a 2TB option.
It should be noted that similar rumors last year claimed that the iPhone 14 Pro Max would also see a price hike, but Apple opted to keep the price the same. But rumors for this year’s phone suggest a much bigger upgrade than last year, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the top-end iPhone get a higher price tag.
Apple is clearly feeling the pinch of declining Mac sales, so the MacBook Air’s price drop, while surprising, makes sense. It is not the same with the iPhone, whose sales remain healthy. So we bet the rumors are accurate this year and for the first time in years, Apple is raising the price of the Pro models by at least $100 each.
