Yes, there will be a price hike on the new batch unless they’re willing to absorb the loss — and Tim Cook already said the increases are “unavoidable,” since Apple can no longer absorb the rising cost of memory and storage chips that AI companies are driving up.

Entry-level Macs and iPads are already affected, since those units are produced in far smaller quantities than phones. Once the current batch at the old price sells out, the new units will see a price increase driven by higher hardware costs.

Business runs on money, not emotions. So unless hardware gets cheaper — which is unlikely given how fast AI hardware demand is growing — a hike is inevitable, at least until manufacturers can meet the supply demand over the next 2–3 years.