When Apple finally caved to the memory crisis and increased prices across Mac and iPad on June 25, 2026, most people reacted with disbelief, frustration, or resigned acceptance. Mine was a quiet, slightly wicked smile, and in about two to three minutes, you’ll understand exactly why.
My M1 MacBook Air (8GB, 256GB) has been showing its age since last year. It was starting to crack under pressure. Whenever I opened more than 10 or 15 Chrome tabs, it would protest quietly before crashing, forcing me to ration them. Video exports, even casual ones, started taking noticeably longer. I did everything I was supposed to do, but none of it made a meaningful difference.
My M1 MacBook Air gave up after four years
Even though the constant lagging and slowdowns were pushing me to get a new one, I held off the purchase for as long as I could. But then one day, my MacBook simply won’t turn on. That was the tipping point for me. I started comparing all the available options in my budget, and one device made perfect sense to me: the M4 MacBook Air.
The smart play, on paper, was to grab the M4 MacBook Air (13-inch) at a discounted price. But when I actually ran the numbers, the M4 model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage was only $70 to $80 cheaper than the already-discounted M5 equivalent, here in India. That’s not savings; that’s a rounding error.
The M5 MacBook Air, for a slightly higher price, offered twice the storage at 512GB, meaningfully better immediate performance, and enough headroom to use it for at least three to four years, or maybe even five. That made the decision for me.
The M5 vs. M4 math didn’t add up
You see, Apple launched the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air in the US at $1,099. In India, the launch price translated to INR 119,900, or around $1,270 at current rates. And thanks to prevalent discounts and offers, I saved around $200 on the purchase, which mattered since it was an unplanned purchase.
On June 15, 2026, I got the M5 MacBook Air in India for INR 101,824, or roughly $1,078, from a third-party online retailer. Even then, I wasn’t entirely convinced I’d made the right decision. Part of me kept wondering whether I should have repaired my old MacBook instead.
Then, all of a sudden, Apple itself made me feel a whole lot better about that purchase.
The plot twist came 10 days after my MacBook Air arrived at my door, when Apple raised the retail prices for a bunch of its products, including the M5 MacBook Air.
Then Apple changed everything
The company briefly took its entire online store down, and when it came back up, the US price for the baseline M5 MacBook Air had jumped by $200, taking it to $1,299. In India, the price moved from around $1,270 to $1,587 (over $300). The effective price, even via third-party retailers, now stands around Apple’s previous MSRP in the region.
I genuinely couldn’t believe it when I saw the numbers change. If I had hummed and hawed for a few more days, bought the device from the same seller, and had it shipped from the same warehouse, it would have cost me another $200.
The discount I got is gone now, and there’s no way Apple is reducing the prices anytime soon.
I dodged the Macflation bullet by just 10 days
Given how long I plan to use this device, that’s quite a small margin. The memory crisis finally caught up to Apple, and I’m just glad that I got my MacBook before it did.
What I’m keen to know now is whether Apple will increase the iPhone 18 Pro’s price later this year, since recent reports haven’t painted the launch price in the best light.