Apple raises MacBook prices across the board as M5 chips, new displays signal AI-first strategy

In this article AAPL Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Apple Macbook Pro Source: Apple Inc. Apple on Tuesday rolled out new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models with its latest M5 chips, along with an updated Studio Display lineup, in its biggest Mac refresh in more than a year. The push gives Apple a fresh shot at reviving Mac demand while making a broader case that more AI work will move onto the device itself, not just the cloud. The announcements come at a critical moment for Apple's Mac business, which saw sales drop nearly 7% to $8.39 billion during the holiday quarter, falling well short of analyst expectations of nearly $9 billion . These new machines are meant to get people to upgrade, especially users still hanging onto older Intel-era systems or early M-series devices. But they also arrive at higher prices, with tighter memory supply driving up costs as suppliers favor the more lucrative AI data center market over consumer hardware. Apple Macbook Pro Source: Apple Inc. The MacBook Air now starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch model (up from $999) and $1,299 for the 15-inch (up from $1,199), with Apple doubling base storage to 512GB. The MacBook Pro gets more expensive as well, with the 14-inch M5 Pro starting at $2,199 and the 16-inch M5 Max at $3,899, up $400 from its predecessor. To help justify the higher prices, Apple raised the starting storage floor on the Pro line, with M5 Pro models now starting at 1TB and M5 Max models starting at 2TB. But the bigger pitch is performance. Apple is positioning the M5 Pro and M5 Max as a real step up for heavier workloads, especially AI. The company says the new MacBook Pro can process large language model prompts nearly four times faster than comparable M4-based machines and up to eight times faster than M1 models, all without sacrificing battery life. That is central to Apple's push to make the Mac a more credible platform for running advanced AI tools locally — an increasingly important capability for bus...