Apple’s decision to raise prices for select MacBook and iPad models marks a broader shift in the consumer electronics industry, with surging memory costs and AI-driven demand for semiconductors forcing manufacturers to reconsider pricing strategies, analysts said on Thursday.

The price hikes come after Apple indicated that it could no longer fully absorb rising component costs, particularly for memory and storage chips that have witnessed sharp increases amid strong demand from artificial intelligence data centres and cloud computing providers, news agency IANS reported.