Sneaky Apple Raises iPad Pro Prices By $50 Amid NAND Flash Shortage

Apple of course wasn't going to announced the bad news during its keynote, so it took a keen observer, MacRumors, to spot that 256GB and 512GB versions of the iPad Pro are now $50 more expensive. It doesn't matter if you choose the Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi+LTE models; the $50 price hike is now in effect across all color variations. The only members of the iPad Pro family that have been spared include the 10.5- and 12.9-inch models that come equipped with 64GB of RAM.

Before the "price adjustment" was instituted, the 64GB, 256GB and 512GB 10.5-inch iPad Pro was priced from $649, $749 and $949 respectively. Those prices now stand at $649, $799 and $999 respectively. As for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, prices went from $799, $899 and $1,099 to $799, $949 and $1,149 respectively.

While Apple has given no reason for the price increases, and we're not certain that the company will, most have speculated that that short supplies of NAND flash memory are the culprit. In addition, more iPhone customers have been flocking to higher-capacity SKUs, further straining Apple's chip inventory.

With that being said, we can't recall a time in recent memory when Apple, a company that typically absorbs such bumps in the road with regards to component prices during the life cycle of a product, decided to take such an anti-consumer move with regards to pricing.