Following Tuesday’s iPhone X event, Apple has quietly raised prices across Wi-Fi and cellular iPad Pro models with 256GB and 512GB of storage by $50 for seemingly no apparent reason.
Apple didn’t provide an explanation, but it’s widely speculated that an undersupply of NAND flash memory chips, coupled with a surge in orders for the new iPhone X and iPhone 8 models, has resulted in a pretty dramatic increase in the cost of NAND flash storage.
Here are the affected iPad Pro models following the price hike:
  • 10.5-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi with 256 gigabytes of storage for $799
  • 10.5-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cellular with 256 gigabytes of storage for $929
  • 10.5-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi with 512 gigabytes of storage for $999
  • 10.5-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cellular with 512 gigabytes of storage for $1,129
  • 12.9-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi with 256 gigabytes of storage for $949
  • 12.9-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cellular with 256 gigabytes of storage for $1,079
  • 12.9-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi with 512 gigabytes of storage for $1,149
  • 12.9-inch iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cellular with 512 gigabytes of storage for $1,279
Pricing for the baseline iPad Pro models with 64 gigabytes of storage remain the same as when they launched in June: the 10.5-inch 64GB iPad Pro still starts at $649 and its 12.9-inch counterpart at $799. Before the price hike, 10.5-inch iPad Pro pricing was $799/$899/$1099 for the 64/256/512GB Wi-Fi models and 10.5-inch iPad Pro pricing was $649/$749/$949.
Other than pricing, nothing has changed in terms of hardware, software or design.
The price hike is seen in other regions, including Europe and Australia. In certain oversea markets, customers are now required to pay even higher prices that the equivalent of $50.
In the United Kingdom Apple Store, for example, the price of the Wi-Fi-only 10.5-inch iPad Pro model with 256 gigabytes of storage has gone from £709 to £769.
It’s unclear if the prices will drop to their original levels once NAND flash supply improves. I purchased my 10.5-inch iPad Pro just a few weeks ago, thankfully. If you’re in the market for a new iPad Pro, some retailers are still offering the original pricing.