Apple's Mac business is booming, but the memory market has other plans

Apple says it sold more Macs in fiscal 2026 than in any previous year, but soaring memory prices are threatening to spoil the Cupertino-based gadget maker's record-breaking run.

The warning came during Apple's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call on Monday, the first since John Ternus took over as CEO.

"What we're seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented," Ternus told analysts.

Apple has already raised prices across much of its hardware lineup, including Macs and iPads in June and iPhones in September. Those increases, along with existing inventories and cheaper components elsewhere, have softened the blow. Unfortunately for Apple, memory prices haven't finished climbing.

"For the December quarter, we expect even higher memory costs," Ternus said, adding that Apple expects to pay more for memory beyond the end of the year.

Mac buyers haven't been deterred so far. Apple pulled in $10.8 billion from Macs in the September quarter, up 24 percent year-on-year, following $10.35 billion in the June quarter, …