(Credit: Kyle Cobain/PCMag)
Buying an external hard drive from Apple is now much more expensive, and it's likely due to the ongoing global storage crisis affecting RAM and SSD production.
As spotted by Bloomberg, Apple updated prices in recent days with considerable jumps across third-party SSD accessories. Prices are normally set by each manufacturer, rather than Apple itself, but a SanDisk 4TB Pro-G40 SSD is now $1,199.95, a 140% jump from from $499.95, on top of a previous rise from the $399.95 launch price for this 4TB model. A 1TB SanDisk SSD also jumped from around $120 to $360. A 2TB version will set you back $600.
That said, storage accessories are currently sold out on Apple's website, except for its own SSD upgrade kits for the Mac Pro in 2TB ($1,000), 4TB ($1,600), and 8GB ($2,800) configurations.
Every product from third-party storage companies, including LaCie, Promise, and SanDisk, is currently unavailable on the website, with a note that you may find stock in-store. That may be worth trying, but there's no guarantee.
If you’ve been following the AI-driven RAM crisis in the SSD and HDD space, you likely won’t be surprised to see these price jumps from Apple. We've seen similar at other retailers and manufacturers in the last year.
Looking to buy more storage in the immediate future? Check out PCMag's roundup of the best external SSDs; our top pick, the Crucial X9 Pro 1TB, is available for $166.75 and in stock through a third-party seller on Amazon. Before you buy, know that this price is higher than Amazon's previous high of $129.99, and some sales brought it down to $59.99 in 2023.