Apple's newly unveiled products start at higher price points, with the 2018 Macbook Air 128GB model starting 20% higher, continuing Apple's push into higher ASP
but it only costs $800 Aaron Lee / DigiTimes : Supply chain not upbeat about order prospects for new MacBook Air Christopher Baugh / iPhone in Canada Blog : iPad Pro's Geekbench Scores Show A12X Bionic's Power Comparable to 2018 15″ MacBook Pro Chris Smith / BGR : The Retina MacBook Air has a processor like no other laptop Luke Filipowicz / iMore : Should you get Apple Care for the new 2018 MacBook Air? Tweets: Vlad Savov / @vladsavov : MacBook Air vs. iPad Pro is a choice between doing things the old way and inventing entirely new ways. http://www.theverge.com/... http://twitter.com/... STFR Lindzon / @howardlindzon : Apple inflation ... only good for Apple... all the other inflation coming is bad for everyone. http://twitter.com/... @benlovejoy : A MacBook line-up that lacks logic but makes perfect financial sense ... http://twitter.com/... Rodrigo Araujo / @rodrigoaraujo : I agree the Mac Mini value has been increased (even though I think it's base config is seriously bad), but the iPad Pros of last year were already very powerful and very expensive. 20% YoY increase is too much. Eric P / @itsericp : Made this exact comment to my wife last night while justifying my iPad Pro purchase. Me thinks the iPhone X experiment last year gave them the “courage” to do this with all their products. I'm not happy. I've updated my iPad every year since 2010. I won't be next year. Carlos Macias / @cmaciasjimenez : Also they increased the price increments for storage. In Europe going from 64GB to 256GB in the Pro goes fron +100€ to +170€ (+70%) and this is even harder to justify since there's no face unlock tech or fancy screens involved. Rodrigo Araujo / @rodrigoaraujo : Part of what made the Air and the Mini só successful we're their price ranges. Increasing their base prices and offering crappy base configs (128 SSD anyone?) is just consumer hostility. John Goering / @epaga : Seems to me their long-term goal is to offer stuff from $350 all the way up to $5000. Make you BLEED if you want the newest stuff, make everyone else happy. Sucks for devs who kind of “need” the newest stuff. Steve Nagel / @snitstwits : Prices up. So is the value proposition on Mini and iPad. Apple's idea: Create a great product and charge enough to create another great product. Also: Create durable products and let resales seve the price sensitive market sector. Which it does quite well. Cory Birdsong / @cbirdsong : This goes back to the 2016 MacBook Pros. The 13" with the same class CPU went from $1299 to $1799. The $1499 base model with no touch bar uses the CPU class from the Macbook Air, and even it was $200 more expensive than the 2015 base MBP. Alan Miller / @rosewoodat5th : I'm not sure I buy this as being “unreal”. The original Mac mini cost 799 & thats 1,032 in todays dollars. Original MacBook Air cost 1,799 & thats 2,109 today. 2nd gen Air cost 1,499 & thats 1,763 today. iPad is shocking but if they're becoming full computers it makes sense to me Mac Murdock / @bill_mcalonan : If $750 is a entry-level phone. Then then 799 doesn't seem so bad for an entry-level computer does it? I mean you could always go get a chrome book for 200 bucks and get another one next year for 200 bucks Brian Fitzgerald / @bryfitz : The thing to always remember when it comes to tech gadget pricing. That $799 iPad Pro? “If you spec it out with 1TB and LTE, the 12.9-inch model runs all the way up to $1,899.” https://www.theverge.com/... Luke Anders / @luke_anders3 : Annnnnd Smart Keyboard: 169 -> 199 (18%) Pencil: 100 -> 119 (20%) Parmy Olson / @parmy : Mac Mini price: $799 (up from $499) MacBook Air: $1,199 (up from $999). It's becoming harder to afford Apple gear. #AppleEvent live David Pierce / @pierce : Used to be, Apple made a thing better and kept the price the same. The pitch was always, “Look how much we can do now for the same price! Lucky you!” Now it's making things better and making us pay extra for the difference. I miss the old way. Rodrigo Araujo / @rodrigoaraujo : Yesterday price surges: MacBook Air: 999 -> 1199 (+20%) Mac Mini: 499 -> 799 (+60%) iPad Pro 10.5: 649 -> 799 (+23%) iPad Pro 12.9: 799 -> 999 (+25%) This is unreal. I find it hard to believe that only a handful of people are talking about this. Christopher Mims / @mims : getting mad about the price of Apple devices is about as useful as getting mad at the price of any other luxury good
Context & Ripple Effects
The fall 2018 refresh was previewed in July as a broad lineup overhaul — Ming-Chi Kuo flagged new Watches, Face ID iPad Pros, a Mac mini refresh, and what was framed as a new low-price laptop. What shipped instead inverted that framing: the MacBook Air's base price rose ~20% to $1,199, alongside a 60% Mac Mini increase, 23–25% iPad Pro hikes, and double-digit accessory increases.
This wasn't a one-off repricing but a deliberate mix shift toward higher average selling prices across Mac and iPad. The pattern held in later coverage: the Mac Pro topped out above $50K configured with 4TB storage and $400 wheels (Mac Pro ordering details), and even the 2021 M1 iPad Pro kept a $799/$1,099 entry structure (M1 iPad Pro pricing).
First-order effects
- Buyers entering the Mac and iPad lines face materially higher floors: the MacBook Air at $1,199, Mac Mini at $799, iPad Pro from $799–$999, plus Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil each up ~18–20%, raising the real cost of a working setup.
- Apple trades the MacBook Air's historical role as its affordable entry laptop for margin, immediately repositioning the product upmarket.
Second-order effects
- Supply-chain sentiment turns cautious — DigiTimes reports the chain is not upbeat about order prospects for the new MacBook Air, signaling volume risk if higher prices suppress demand.
- Windows PC makers get pricing headroom in the sub-$1,200 laptop segment Apple vacated, while Apple's own accessory attach economics improve as keyboards and pencils carry their own price increases.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Apple's hardware business structurally shifts from unit-driven to ASP-driven growth — later confirmed by the $50K+ Mac Pro ceiling and sustained premium iPad pricing — shrinking the truly budget tier of its catalog.
- A premium-only Apple raises the strategic question of who serves first-time and price-sensitive buyers, pushing that demand toward competitors and used/refurbished channels.
The trend: Apple is systematically trading unit volume for average selling price, raising entry pricing across Mac, iPad, and accessories rather than competing at the low end.