During WWDC 2022, Apple announced a new and redesigned MacBook Air with an M2 chip to refresh the model it launched in 2020 when it began the transition from Intel to its processors. The Cupertino company, despite having a wide range of Macs with its chips, has wanted to keep the MacBook Air M1 (from 2020) in its catalog as a somewhat cheaper option compared to the version with M2, but with a strategy until now never seen: raising its price considerably.

When Apple announces a new product and keeps its predecessor for sale, it often lowers the price of that older model so that it doesn’t match or beat the new version. This happens, above all, in the iPhone, since the company does not tend to raise the prices of its mobiles between generations. An example: the iPhone 12 went on sale in October 2020 for 909 euros, while the iPhone 13 went on sale a year later for the same price. Apple, therefore, has lowered the cost of the iPhone 12 by 100 euros to differentiate 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 keeps the price of the older version. That is, it does not go down, but it does not go up either. That’s what it has done with the MacBook Air with M1 in the US, which remains priced at $999. In Spain, however, it is currently more expensive. This model, in particular, costs 90 euros more than its starting price. Apple, let’s remember, marketed it at the end of 2020 at 1,129 euros. Now, it is available for 1,219 euros. If it is not a common strategy in 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 why Apple could have increased the price of the MacBook Air with M1 is because the base version that is currently available could have a slightly more powerful configuration than the one that the company offered before the launch of the new model with M2. The specifications, however, have not changed at all. As we have been able to verify through the Web Archive, at the beginning of 2022 the base model, whose price was 1,129 euros, had an M1 chip with an eight-core CPU, a seven-core GPU, 8 GB of unified memory, and 256 GB of internal memory. The current base version is also available of that configuration in the SoC, as well as the same memory.

We also can’t attribute the price increase to the announcement of the new MacBook Air with M2. Not only because this one is more expensive, but because the price of the model with M1 has not gone up immediately after the release of the new version. He did it at the beginning of the year, as we can see in the Web Archive. In January 2021, its price was 1,129 euros. At the beginning of April 2022, the increase of 90 euros was already reflected on the Apple website.

Inflation could be the reason why the MacBook Air M1 (2020) has risen in price

The reasons why the MacBook Air M1 announced in 2020 has risen in price, therefore, are summarized in two possible causes.

One of them is the inflation that we are currently going through and the one that we are noticing, above all, in Spain. The price of fuel is higher than a year ago and the costs of most products have also increased. And it is that even though we spend more due to the suspension of the restrictions imposed to prevent contagion, the supply chain is still not capable of meeting this large number of demands.

The raw material needed to manufacture products is more limited and therefore more expensive. Transportation costs and other processes required to produce, say, a laptop like the MacBook Air, have also increased in the face of high demand. And this, in the end, is summed up in a rise in the price of the final product. Therefore, and considering that the MacBook Air is probably one of the devices with the highest demand in the Apple catalog, but also one of the most limited due to the lack of components, it is not surprising to see this increase in prices. price to balance the scales.

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

The fall of the euro against the dollar could also have forced Apple to raise the price of the MacBook Air M1 in Spain. The euro, specifically, has fallen by up to 1.5% against the dollar during May, while in 2021 the difference was not so considerable. Just take a look at the euro to the dollar exchange rate a year ago versus today.

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 see the difference using the example of the price of the MacBook Air M1 in euros and converting that cost to dollars.

In April 2021, the MacBook Air with M1 in Spain cost 1,129 euros, about 1,329 dollars at the exchange rate.
In June 2022, if the MacBook Air with M1 had remained at 1,129 euros, it would cost about 1,207 dollars at the exchange rate. Now costing 1,219 euros, the change is about 1,303 dollars.

The difference is palpable, so it would not be strange if Apple simply increased the price to compensate for the depreciation. There is still a difference between the euro to dollar exchange rate compared to a year ago. In any case, it is not something worrying, since it is possible to find this same model in authorized dealers at a lower price.