Report: 2026 as a catastrophic year in the notebook sector – and now Apple’s price increases | News

Apple delayed the moment for a long time – and perhaps would have waited even longer, but it probably didn’t want future CEO John Ternus to start his term in office with bad news. We’re talking about the recent price increases in the Mac and iPad sectors. Counterpoint recently revealed in a study that Apple is benefiting greatly this year from not having significantly increased prices like almost all of its competitors. As is well known, that has now changed, because the MacBook Neo is 100 euros more expensive, and the entry-level model of the Mac Studio is even 700 euros more expensive. TrendForce has therefore updated its own forecasts and addressed the new situation.

2026 will be a catastrophic year for the market
The basic message remains: 2026 is likely to go down in history as an extraordinarily difficult year for the market as a whole. Many potential customers are reluctant to buy, which in some cases leads to a significant decline in unit numbers. For notebooks, a big drop of almost 14 percent is expected. Apple’s surcharges are now likely to make the situation even worse, according to TrendForce. The strong start to the year and, above all, the dramatic success of the MacBook Neo are cushioning the situation for Apple considerably – to the extent that, regardless of the price increases, double-digit growth rates can still be expected for 2026. Nevertheless, one must assume that Mac sales will be more subdued in the second half of the year – less growth will at the same time result in weaker figures across all manufacturers.

The price gap between cheaper Macs is shrinking
The competitive situation has changed a little, but in view of the price differences that have increased in the premium range and decreased in the case of the MacBook Neo, customers could increasingly consider cheaper Windows notebooks. These had already become more expensive months before, so that we are now back to the original starting point. However, purchasing reluctance is now very pronounced – there is generally a collapse in demand, which in the Windows sector does not suddenly end because Apple products have also become more expensive.