Apple somehow just doubled the amount of storage in the new MacBook Air M5 base model to 512 GB despite the memory crisis
With all indications being that the AI-fuelled memory crisis will get worse before it gets better and will also be upon us until at least 2028, fair to say there's a legitimate concern whether affordable PCs will be viable at all. We may not even get to ask the question about how much memory or storage to expect. But here comes Apple with a new MacBook Air with double the storage of the previous model.
There is a catch. The new MacBook Air M5 base model with 512 GB of storage costs an extra $100 over the outgoing MacBook Air M4 with 256 GB. But then the MSRP of the base MacBook Air was $999 since forever until this M5 model jumped to $1,099. Factor in generally heightened inflation in recent years, and the MacBook Air M5 today with 512 GB is comfortably cheaper in real terms than its equivalent with half the storage from a few years ago.
Of course, you're also getting the new M5 chip and some other upgrades. But in the current context of the memory crisis and the general sense that we're going to have to do more with less when it comes to PC memory and storage, not to mention most PC makers putting prices up, it's a pretty remarkable turn of events.
As to how Apple can seemingly buck the trend, well, there are various candidate explanations. Most obviously, Apple is widely regarded as having some of the best margins in the business. So, it can absorb increased component costs more easily than most.
Apple also operates on a much larger scale than most of the competition. When Apple is buying RAM and storage, it's not just buying it for MacBook Airs. It will have long-term contracts for iPhone, iPads, Watches and more, all of which use both memory types. And that adds up to a lot of memory.
Without being at all privy to any of Apple's commercial deals, it's safe to assume that when Apple comes knocking, even in this crisis, suppliers pay attention. Get on the wrong side of Apple in the hope of some short-term profiteering over the memory crisis, and that could spell long-term pain well after the current AI bubble pops, or at least normalises.
Put another way, if any company making regular old computers for us normies, as opposed to chips for AI servers, is in a position to get a vaguely reasonable deal right now for RAM and storage, it's Apple. It's also true that Apple has always charged absolutely ridiculous amounts of money for memory and SSD upgrades. In that regard, Apple absolutely has plenty of margin to work with.
That obviously doesn't apply quite so directly for base configurations without a premium added for upgrades. But it underlines that earlier point about Apple's fat margins.
Anywho, it will be interesting to see how this develops. If memory prices do generally keep going up with the consequence that even basic PCs become prohibitively expensive, we could end up, at least for a time, in the bizarre situation where the cheapest option is Apple.
The problem with that, unfortunately, is gaming. The one application type for which a MacBook is undeniably suboptimal is gaming, largely due to software compatibility. But heck, maybe if the only reasonably priced computers out there for a while are Macs, the games industry might take a bit more notice. Or not. OK, probably not.