Apple just quietly hiked the price of its old Apple TV 4K model by $70 ‣ Diverse Daily

The tech world has been grappling with rising prices all year as an ongoing global memory shortage, caused by AI, continues to drive up the cost of key components like RAM and storage. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently warned that higher prices were “unavoidable” given the worsening situation, and now those increases have officially arrived.

Apple has begun rolling out price hikes across most of its device lineup, with MacBooks and iPads among the hardest hit. The 13-inch M5 MacBook Air, for example, now costs $1,299 instead of $1,099, while the M5 MacBook Pro has jumped from $1,699 to $1,999. The 11-inch iPad Pro has also seen a substantial increase, rising from $999 to $1,199. And those are just a few examples. Every iPad and Mac that Apple currently sells has been affected by these price hikes.

However, as significant as those increases are, the one that concerns me most is the Apple TV 4K. It was already one of the more expensive streaming devices on the market, but Apple has now raised its price dramatically. The 64GB model has increased by $70, from $129 to $199, while the 128GB version now costs $249 instead of $149.

Considering the current third-gen Apple TV 4K launched back in 2022, seeing it get a price hike nearly four years later is unsettling, especially when the 128GB model has gone up by a full $100. But what worries me even more is what these price increases could mean for the next Apple TV 4K.

The new Apple TV 4K is going to be expensive

But exactly how expensive is the big question

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently reported that Apple has a new Apple TV 4K “nearly ready to go” and has been holding back its release until its next-generation Siri and Apple Intelligence features are ready. Now that Siri AI has been officially announced and is arriving with iOS 27 this fall, there’s renewed hope that Apple will finally release its new Apple TV 4K this year, nearly four years after the third-gen model launched in 2022.

But with these latest price increases hitting the current third-gen Apple TV 4K, I’m starting to worry about what a new model might cost. It will almost certainly feature upgraded hardware, with rumors pointing to the A17 Pro chip, the processor that debuted in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max back in 2023.

On top of that, if the new Apple TV 4K is going to support Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features, it’s likely to include more RAM than the current model as well. That’s where things get concerning. Since the ongoing memory shortage is driving up RAM costs in particular, there’s a real possibility that the next Apple TV 4K could launch at an even higher price than the recently increased third-gen model, potentially pushing well beyond the $200 mark.

Given that the Apple TV 4K’s main competitors, the Roku Ultra and Google TV Streamer, both cost $100, a full $100 less than the 64GB Apple TV 4K now, it’s going to be much harder for me to recommend the Apple TV 4K to anyone. The Roku Ultra and Google TV Streamer can deliver a similarly great streaming experience for significantly less money. And if a new Apple TV 4K ends up being even more expensive, it could become an extremely tough sell.

Of course, this is speculation on my part, given all the news about these price hikes and rumors surrounding the new Apple TV 4K. It’s entirely possible that Apple will keep the $200 price tag for the new Apple TV 4K, but I think another price hike is inevitable. I hope I’m wrong.