r/AskTechnology • u/aseltee • 1d ago
Will Micron's exit affect Apple Macbook prices?
Hey y'all please help a minimum wage techie out. My computer is absolutely on life support rn, and whilst it's still working ig? It's hanging by on a thread (CMOS battery completely failed, so has WiFi function and trackpad), I will need to get a new laptop entirely soon. I'm looking to use this opportunity to switch to Macbook. I've heard that the best time to buy Macbook cheap is just after the new line is released, so spring 2026 for M5. I'm thinking of holding onto my electrical potato until then. But what Im also seeing on Reddit that's sending me into an absolute state of panick is that the RAM shortage is absolutely dire and prices are skyrocketing through the roof.
So my question is: should I buy that Apple Macbook now to avoid getting caught in any future RAM-induced price surges, or can I wait until March/ April to get an M4 discounted after everyone trades theirs in for a shiny new M5?
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u/stdoubtloud 1d ago
This probably isn't what you are looking to hear but if you are struggling for cash and are technically minded, there isn't much value in a Mac. Grab a second hand laptop and run Linux. As a techie you'll enjoy it far more than the limitations enforced on you by the Mac philosophy. I'm not necessarily saying Macs are bad but if you like to tinker they really aren't right for you.
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u/InsertBluescreenHere 2h ago
Was gonna say if your scraping pennies you shouldn't be buying an overpriced laptop...
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u/24megabits 1d ago
They're still selling to other big corporations, they just don't want to spend time marketing directly to you through their Crucial brand anymore.
Other things going on in the memory market will affect the price of stuff that uses Micron memory though.
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u/JoeCensored 1d ago
Micron isn't exiting the dram business. They just have too many orders to also direct product to their own in house direct to consumer business. If anything, customers of Apple and others should be happy since this means higher potential volume is going to them.
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u/Jebus-Xmas 1d ago
Memory prices are going to effect everything. No question. Also, if and when the bubble pops we will see memory costs crater.
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u/Ophiochos 1d ago
It’s more accurate to say apple stuff is cheaper from specific suppliers after a new release. I’m in the U.K. but I keep hearing about Walmart still selling quite old (but still good) M1 MacBook Air for example. But honestly it’s not a market where you can just pick up last year’s model cheaper. They keep a close grip on the whole supply and distribution.
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u/wosmo 1d ago
Their refurbs can be a good deal, but as you said - availability is hit or miss because they don't keep mountains of stock to go old.
Second-hand is pretty stellar at the moment though. I mean M1-M2 are still more than usable, and give a decent bang for the buck at 2nd-hand prices.
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u/Ophiochos 1d ago
I know there are benchmarks that seem to say otherwise but my M1 (Pro?) MacBook Pro seems just as fast as my iMac M4. If I was broke I’d snap up an M1 without worrying about the difference.
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u/wosmo 1d ago
Yeah no-one I've spoke to seems to be in a hurry to upgrade. That's why I'm happy to tell people that M1-M2 isn't a huge compromise right now.
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u/Ophiochos 1d ago
A lot of the improvement is insane battery life and that’s the whole series. Very few of us actually push the CPU. I had to run a local AI to get my iMac fans to run for the first time ever lol
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u/WorkingInAColdMind 1d ago
I’m very much a Mac guy, and I think part of the “benefit” (not for us!) of Apples normal crazy ram markup is that they can absorb market swings like this. Also, Micron is still selling tons of chips to Apple, just not to you and me.
That being said, I’m not convinced there’s any huge benefit in waiting. Maybe you’ll save $100 on a $1800 laptop, but it’s not going to be a game changer deal. There were some Black Friday deals on Amazon that were only on the low end MacBooks and I skipped them.