Apple has raised prices across its Mac and iPad lineup in response to rising memory chip costs, with the increases landing in the middle of Amazon Prime Day. The spread between outgoing and incoming prices is now wide enough — up to $800 on some MacBook Pro configurations — that inventory still priced at pre-hike levels represents a real dollar difference, not a rounding adjustment.
Where the Old Inventory Still Sits
Not all retailers have updated their systems at the same pace. Best Buy and B&H Photo have already reset their Mac pricing to Apple's new levels. Amazon is carrying a mix of old and new prices depending on the configuration, with some pre-hike figures still visible. Costco's member-only deals were listed as valid through June 26th or 27th. The practical result is a brief dispersion across retailer channels — the same physical product at meaningfully different prices depending on where the order clears.
The Price Gap, Product by Product
The entry point is the MacBook Neo, Apple's most affordable laptop with a 13-inch display and an A18 Pro chip. Its base 256GB configuration is available for $589.99 at Amazon and Costco against Apple's new price of $699 — a $110 gap. The 512GB version is $689.99 against a new list of $799.
The MacBook Air with M5 chip shows larger dollar spreads. The 13-inch model with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage is $949 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Costco, against Apple's new price of $1,299 — a $350 difference. The 15-inch Air in its base 16GB and 512GB configuration is $1,149.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Costco, which is $350 below the new $1,499 list.
On the MacBook Pro side, the 14-inch M5 base model is available at Amazon for $1,549.99 versus a new MSRP of $1,999. The 14-inch M5 Pro is $2,049.99 at Amazon and Best Buy against a new list of $2,499. The 14-inch M5 Max configuration is $3,299.99 at Amazon versus Apple's new price of $4,099.
For desktop buyers, Costco is still showing the M4 iMac's 8-core base model — 16GB of memory, 256GB of storage — at $1,149.99 against Apple's new starting price of $1,499. The Mac Mini and Mac Studio are a different story: supply has already been absorbed, reportedly pulled by AI inference demand running OpenClaw agents, with no available inventory visible at major retailers.
The Supply-Side Reading
Memory chip cost increases as the sole explanation for hardware price hikes are rarely the complete picture — component costs are one input among several, and the timing against a competitor's promotional event is rarely accidental. What is straightforward is the inventory arithmetic: units priced before the hike exist inside retailer supply chains, and the effective discount those prices represent grows larger as Apple's new MSRPs take hold. The window is narrowing as retailers finish their system updates, and some configurations have already moved to new pricing.