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'Price increases are unavoidable' says Tim Cook, proving even Apple isn't impervious to the global memory shortage
"We’re willing to use our balance sheet to help be a part of the solution."
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Courtesy of the RAMpocalypse, companies are raising prices for their memory-loaded products left, right, and centre. Apple products, however, had previously remained mostly (though not completely) untouched. No longer, though, as the company CEO Tim Cook tells the Wall Street Journal.
"Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable. We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."
This is not your usual shortage, he explains: "This is a hundred-year flood. I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years."
Cook told the WSJ that both storage and memory are problems, but regarding DRAM specifically, he said:
"There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases. We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line."
He also explained that the company is open to taking a hit to keep prices low:
"We’re willing to use our balance sheet to help be a part of the solution. Obviously, more capacity is needed."
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