Apple has increased the prices of MacBooks and other products in South Africa, with some devices, including the Apple TV 4K, rising by as much as 41%. Picture: Michael Sherman/IOL
Image: Michael Sherman/IOL
Like a fleeting teenage romance, Apple products in South Africa were, for a brief period, bordering on affordable. But that’s over now.
Just as happened in the US a couple of weeks ago, there has been a massive price hike across Apple’s product range, with the exception of the iPhone – for now.
I wrote about it last week, when the price increases had not yet filtered through to South Africa. In that article, I said it was the best time to buy an Apple product.
Now, it’s the worst.
A 15-inch M5 MacBook Air that cost R25,999 last week has jumped to R30,599. That’s an increase of R4,600, or 17.69%.
Most people, though, won’t be buying that model. They’ll likely be deciding between the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air and the new 13-inch MacBook Neo.
The 13-inch M5 MacBook Air cost R19,999 last week. It has now risen by R6,500 to R26,499 — a staggering increase of more than 32%.
Apple’s cheapest laptop offering and new product for 2026, the MacBook Neo, launched at R11,999 but has now increased to R13,999. That’s a R2,000 jump, or 16.67%.
Apple's cheapest iPad, the A16 has gone up from R6,999 to R8,799 which is a 25% increase and amount of R1,800.
The price hikes are largely due to an industry-wide increase in RAM (memory) and SSD (storage) prices, driven by the growing hardware demands of AI applications and their integration into operating systems. There are many other increases in the current Apple lineup that I have not even detailed.
The products mentioned above are all Apple’s latest 2026 releases, so it wasn’t entirely surprising to see them affected by the increases.
However, even the Apple TV 4K (3rd gen) — a product that hasn’t been updated since 2022 — has seen a hefty price rise. It has gone from R2,999 to R4,199.
That’s a remarkable 41% increase, or R1,200, on one of Apple’s cheapest products. Given that the device hasn’t received any new hardware for several years, it’s difficult to attribute the increase solely to rising RAM or SSD costs. It seems more likely that Apple has adjusted the pricing to keep it in line with the rest of its product lineup.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to predict how long these higher prices will remain in place, and there’s no indication that they’ll come down anytime soon.
So when I wrote last week that it was the best time to buy an Apple product, it wasn’t just a throwaway line. Now that these increases have landed in South Africa, it really is the worst time to buy.
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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