(Preview) A Summer Break Mailbag: Memory Mania, Vibe Coding, Mafia PR, Caffeine Intake, Garages, and How to Fix Soccer

**Andrew Sharp** (0:00)
Hello, and welcome to a free preview of Sharp Tech.

**Ben Thompson** (0:08)
Apple's price raises this week are one of the more bearish indicators for Apple that I've seen in a long time.

**Andrew Sharp** (0:16)
Okay.

**Ben Thompson** (0:16)
And the reason is that, number one, I don't think they saw this memory increase coming at all. Right? Because they would have been, they would have made the moves that they made in the past. It would have locked up. Remember Jensen Huang being out there, drinking soju with the Samsung CEO or whatever, all those pictures? He saw it coming.
He was out there securing supply such that everyone else is having a hard time.

**Andrew Sharp** (0:44)
That's wild.

**Ben Thompson** (0:44)
Yeah.

**Andrew Sharp** (0:45)
And we didn't see Tim Cook drinking soju.

**Ben Thompson** (0:47)
Didn't see Tim Cook out there securing memory supplies. Okay. So number one, I don't think they saw this coming generally.
Number two, I made a steak dinner bet with John Gruber that the new Macs they introduced in March were going to include a price increase. How could they not, given what was happening with memory? It blew my mind they did not increase prices then because layered on that is one of Apple's brand promises is we don't change prices. Now, part of that is we don't decrease prices, so you can always buy with confidence. I believe this, there's never been a strategic sale because of the, I don't want someone in the moment of decision.

**Andrew Sharp** (1:31)
Someone who paid full price, you don't want to feel like they got shit.

**Ben Thompson** (1:33)
No, no, it's not that. Someone is sitting on that page deciding whether to subscribe or not. I don't want even a hint of in the back of their mind, oh, I'll just wait for the sale.

**Andrew Sharp** (1:41)
I'll wait for the August deal.

**Ben Thompson** (1:42)
That's right, like the once a year sort of thing, right? No, like my price is my price, it's only going in one direction. It will increase at times, it is never going to be cheaper. Now, Apple, so Apple is not cutting prices for sure, but they also usually never want to change prices while product is in the market. You should be able to count on Apple prices are what they are. We don't like, you go to Dell, a computer is a different price every single day, right? Sure. That's fine, that's part of their promise, right? You can customize whatever you want, the price can be whatever you want, who knows? You need a computer to buy it. Apple doesn't do that.
So by not raising prices in March, what that suggests to me is even in March, when all this agentic stuff was working, was in the market, no appreciation for what was coming, they seem to be like, well, maybe it'll blow over.
Right?

**Andrew Sharp** (2:37)
It's pretty unbelievable. Maybe it's like the old cycles, right?

**Ben Thompson** (2:41)
It's going to be six months and we have a lot of temporary, let's try, let's wait as long as like, see if we can make it through. And they said on the earnings call that, oh, this is definitely going to impact, impact the second quarter a little bit, but it's definitely impact the third quarter. I think they're like, like, we're still in the second quarter and they're like, oh, we're out there. Prices are up hundreds of dollars. And it suggests to me, this is a company that still has no idea what's going on with AI.

**Andrew Sharp** (3:10)
But continues to win. You know what I mean?

**Ben Thompson** (3:12)
But the Siri thing, like I said, that's 2024 technology.
Now, we said in 2024, this stuff is so good, there's tons of products to be built on what exists right now. And that governs the fact Apple is going to ship in 2026 what they promised in 2024, and it's gonna be great.

**Andrew Sharp** (3:30)
It's pretty good.

**Ben Thompson** (3:31)
It's because AI is amazing. It is also nowhere close to what AI is capable of right now in 2026, much less going forward. And the fact that Apple, it's not just that Apple missed the memory thing. Fair enough.
The fact they didn't raise prices in March, when they could have at least preserved their brand promise that when we launch a product at a price, it stays that price no matter what, and they're having to out of band increase prices in this very awkward sort of way, suggests that they just don't know what's going on.

**Andrew Sharp** (4:04)
It's plain blind.