Why did the MacBook Air with the M1 go up in price?

During WWDC 2022, Apple announced a new and redesigned MacBook Air with the M2 chip to update the model released in 2020 when it began the transition from Intel to its own processors. The Cupertino-based company, despite having a wide range of Mac computers with their own chips, wanted to keep the MacBook Air M1 (from 2020) in my catalog. as a slightly cheaper option compared to the M2 version, but with a strategy never seen before: significantly increasing its price.

When Apple announces a new product and keeps its predecessor on sale, usually lower the price this old model so that it does not match or exceed the new version. This happens primarily in the iPhone, as the company does not seek to increase the price of its mobile phones between generations. Example: The iPhone 12 went on sale in October 2020 for €909 and the iPhone 13 went on sale a year later for the same price. Therefore, Apple reduced the price of the iPhone 12 by 100 euros to distinguish it from the new model, and now it costs 809 euros.

If, on the other hand, it announces a new product and it is more expensive than the previous generation, the company usually keep the price of the old version. That is, it does not fall, but it does not rise either. In fact, this is what they did with the MacBook Air with the M1 in the US, which is still priced at $999. In Spain, however, it is currently more expensive. This model, in particular, It costs 90 euros more than the starting price.. Recall that Apple sold it at the end of 2020 at a price of 1129 euros. Now it is available for 1219 euros. If this isn’t the usual strategy for the Cupertino firm, what is the reason for this sudden price increase?

It’s not a more powerful configuration, and the new MacBook Air with M2 doesn’t seem to be to blame either.

One of the reasons Apple may have raised the price of the MacBook Air with the M1 is that the base version currently available may have a slightly more powerful configuration than what the company offered before the launch of the new model with the M2. . At the same time, the technical characteristics have not changed.. As of early 2022, we were able to verify via the web archive that the base model, priced at €1,129, had an M1 chip with an octa-core processor, a seven-core GPU, 8 GB of combined memory, and 256 GB of internal memory. The current base version, also available in this configuration in the SoC and also in the same memory.

We also can’t link the price increase to the announcement of the new MacBook Air with M2. Not only because this one is more expensive, but also because the price of the model with M1 did not increase immediately after the release of the new version. He did it at the beginning of the year, as we can see in Web archive. In January 2021, its price was 1129 euros. At the beginning of April 2022, the €90 increase was already reflected on Apple’s website.

Inflation may have been the reason the MacBook Air M1 (2020) went up in price

So the reasons why the 2020 announced MacBook Air M1 went up in price boil down to two possible reasons.

One of them is inflation which we are now experiencing and which we are noticing, above all in Spain. Fuel prices are higher than a year ago, and the cost of most groceries has also increased. And the fact is that even though we are spending more due to the suspension of restrictions put in place to prevent contagion, the supply chain is still unable to meet such a large number of demands.

The raw materials needed to manufacture products are more limited and therefore more expensive. Transportation costs and other processes required to produce, say, a laptop like the MacBook Air have also risen in the face of strong demand. And this, in the end, comes down to an increase in the cost of the final product. So, and given that the MacBook Air is probably one of the most requested devices in Apple’s catalog, but also one of the most limited due to lack of componentsit is not strange to see this price increase to balance the balance.

The depreciation of the euro against the dollar: another possible reason

The fall of the euro against the dollar This may also have forced Apple to raise the price of the MacBook Air M1 in Spain. The euro, in particular, fell by 1.5% against the dollar in May, while in 2021 the difference was not so significant. You just have to look at the euro against the dollar now compared to April 2022, the date we were able to see that the MacBook Air went up in price.

• In April 2021, 1 euro was equivalent to 1.18 dollars.
• In June 2022, 1 euro is equivalent to 1.07 dollars.

Now let’s look at the difference using the example of the MacBook Air M1 price in euros and converting this cost into dollars.

• In April 2021, a MacBook Air with M1 cost €1,129 in Spain. about $1,329 for change.
• In June 2022, if the MacBook Air with M1 stayed at €1,129, it would cost around $1,207 at the exchange rate. Now it costs 1219 euros, change it is about 1303 dollars.

The difference is noticeable, so It wouldn’t be weird if Apple just raised the price to make up for the depreciation.. In fact, the difference between the euro against the dollar compared to last year still exists. In any case, this does not cause much concern, since the same model can be found at official dealers at a lower price.