[Apple and Microsoft Hardware Prices Rise, AI Chip Demand Drives Up Storage Costs, Consumer Electronics Price Surge May Be Underway] BlockBeats News, June 26: Apple and Microsoft have successively announced price increases for their hardware products, which the market interprets as an early signal of AI computing power demand driving up storage chip costs and eventually passing on to consumers. On Apple's side, the starting price of the MacBook Neo has been raised from $599 to $699, the MacBook Air increased to $1,299, and the MacBook Pro rose to $1,999. The iPad Pro saw a significant price hike from $999 to $1,199, while the iPad Air was also raised to $749. On Microsoft's side, just hours after Apple's announcement, Microsoft followed suit, citing rising storage chip costs as the reason for increasing the prices of its Xbox series gaming consoles. The Xbox Series S 512GB saw a $100 increase to $499, while the Xbox Series S 1TB and Xbox Series X 1TB both rose by $150, adjusting to $599 and $799, respectively. The Xbox Series X Digital Edition also increased to $749. Analysts point out that the deeper reason behind this round of price hikes lies in the sustained surge in demand for HBM and NAND storage chips driven by large-scale AI capital expenditures. This has led to tighter supply and rising costs for chips required in consumer electronics. The back-to-back announcements of price increases by these two tech giants are seen by the market as the starting point of an 'AI-induced consumer electronics price surge.' Whether other hardware manufacturers will follow suit remains under close watch.