In an ailing industry, Microsoft just surrendered to the inevitable by implementing across-the-board price hikes for its Surface laptops, enhancing the already-sizable competitive advantage that Apple's MacBooks continue to enjoy over their Surface counterparts.
Apple's MacBook lineup expands its competitive lead as Microsoft implements an across-the-board price hike for Surface laptops
Microsoft has just raised the prices of its Surface laptops within the Microsoft Store, with third-party retailers also expected to follow suit.
After these ill-timed price hikes, Apple's comparative price advantage has become crystal-clear. For instance, the 12-inch Surface Pro now starts at $1,049, while the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air from Apple starts at $999. For context, this base Surface variant previously retailed for just $799.
In the same vein, the 13-inch Surface Pro (16GB) now starts retailing at $1,499, while the M5 MacBook Air from Apple breaks the bank at just $1,099. Even the vanilla 13-inch Surface laptop (16GB) now retails for $1,149 when it used to retail for just $899.
Also, the 15-inch Surface laptop (16GB) will now cost you $1,599, which equals a more modest price hike of around $100. Even so, the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air starts at $1,299.
Finally, at the other end of the spectrum, the 15-inch Surface laptop with 64GB of RAM, the Snapdragon X Elite SoC, and a 1TB SSD now costs $3,649. For comparison, the 16-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro from Apple with equal RAM and SSD starts at $3,299.
TF Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, recently noted that Apple could substantially boost its market share in the ongoing chaos in the memory sphere by absorbing stratospheric memory chip prices and sacrificing some of its already-hefty margins to freeze the prices of its sprawling portfolio of devices.
Accordingly, as Apple's competitors keep increasing their prices, it seems all the Cupertino giant has to do is to maintain its existing price levels, and competitive advantage will start accruing immediately.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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