MacBook Air becomes scarce due to memory shortage despite price hikes

Apple is experiencing supply constraints for MacBook Air due to a memory shortage caused by high demand from the AI industry. According to 9to5Mac citing Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, delivery times for the laptops have increased to a month, and retailers describe the current situation as the toughest ever for the model. The shortage stems from massive expansion of data centers in the US for AI purposes, which has sharply increased purchases of high-performance HBM memory. This has led to reallocation of production capacities and complicated supplies of RAM and storage. Since the start of the year, DDR5 and SSD prices have risen noticeably, and Apple increased prices in June across nearly its entire product line by $100 to over $400. The MacBook Air has been hiked twice in a few months: after the M5 chip version launched in March, the base price rose from $999 to $1099, and in June to $1299. Apple also increased the base storage from 256 to 512 GB. However, even after repricing, the company could not ensure stable availability. Gurman reports that ordering through Apple now involves waits of up to a month, and retail sources call the supply restrictions unprecedented. Apple indirectly confirmed the issue by noting in a student ad campaign that availability of MacBook Air depends on stock, something it typically avoids for mid-cycle models. The shortage is compounded by Apple's internal strategy of prioritizing production of the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 chip ahead of the expected autumn update to M6. The new generation of MacBook Air is expected later than planned as the company maneuvers amid component shortage. To mitigate the crisis, Apple is exploring buying memory from Chinese suppliers, at least for devices sold in the local market. Analysts warn of further supply restrictions and possible price hikes on other Mac models to balance supply and demand.