The cause is the whole thing, cost of shipping (container, gas, etc), cost of components (RAM, SSD, etc), cost of tariff, cost of lobbying and lawsuits, and overall inflation cost.

No. It's literally RAM.

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/25/apple-explains-why-it-r...

And AI is the reason why developers are being laid off.

Don't trust a fox to count your chickens.

They would never say it is about the other reasons because of politics.

Also RAM is impacting other components such as SSD

You can fit about 8,000 MacBook Pros into a 40-foot container in their retail packaging. If the cost of shipping a container went up by USD8,000 (a very large amount), that would be about USD1 per MBP. It's not the shipping that's driving the price increase.

Year Average Spot Rate (USD)

2006 $1,825

2007 $1,775

2008 $1,383

2009 $1,350

2010 $1,900

2011 $1,450

2012 $2,000

2013 $1,750

2014 $1,900

2015 $1,125

2016 $1,350

2017 $1,525

2018 $1,775

2019 $1,490

2020 $3,008

2021 $8,608

2022 $5,500

2023 $1,575

2024 $4,740

2025 $3,150

2026 (YTD) $3,835