苹果的一切都在变贵，全怪 AI
今天，苹果发布了 2026 财年第四财季及全财年业绩。这也是约翰·特努斯（John Ternus）接替库克出任 CEO 后的第一份成绩单。
从账面数字来看，表现可以说是相当生猛，直接录得了苹果史上最佳财年。
单季营收 1144.77 亿美元，同比增长 12%；净利润 307.11 亿美元，同比增长 12%。全财年总营收更是达到了创纪录的 4788 亿美元。
就连连续承压的大中华区，也凭借着秋季新机的换机潮，单季营收逆势增长了 21%。
但在随后的财报电话会上，画风却突然一变。
新官上任的特努斯和管理层，在会上被反复追问的不只是漂亮的销售纪录，而是「成本失控」、「内存涨价」以及「产能受限」。
赶在双十一与年底大促的节骨眼上，苹果给出的利润预期却略显保守：下季度毛利率指引回落至 45%～46%，远低于本季度的 47.9%。
面对分析师对成本飙升与硬件定价的追问，特努斯并没有回避：
这种内存价格是我们前所未见的，它确实给我们的硬件定价带来了直接压力。但我们在定价时始终专注于打造最好的产品并交付价值，分期和换购计划正在成为支撑购买力的关键因素。
每天 25 亿次 Siri，苹果想让用户自己买单
过去很长一段时间，苹果靠着两条腿走路，赚钱赚得非常舒服：一方面靠硬件赚取丰厚的溢价毛利，另一方面依靠 Apple Music、Apple TV+、iCloud+ 和打包的 Apple One，持续沉淀高粘性的订阅收入。
至于那些内置在系统里的基础功能——无论是每天呼出多少次 Siri 设闹钟，还是在相册里分类照片，在绝大多数人的习惯里，它们都理所当然地属于一次性买断的体验，用得再多也不会产生额外的开销。
但 Siri AI 彻底改变了这一切。
特努斯在电话会上透露，如今 Siri 每天需要处理超过 25 亿次用户请求。
端侧小模型解决不了的跨应用调度、长文本重写和复杂推理，全都需要依赖苹果的 Private Cloud Compute（私有云计算集群）。
用户每叫一次 Siri 整理会议纪要、生成图片或调取日程，云端服务器就要烧真金白银的 Token 与电费。
而这笔过去不存在的「运行维护税」，正以惊人的速度挤压苹果的利润空间。
财报显示，苹果 2026 财年的研发支出飙升至 457.65 亿美元，同比暴涨 32.5%，增速是总营收的两倍以上。
CFO 帕雷克在回答分析师时直言：研发费用的激增，核心就是被大模型云端基础设施和推理算力支出硬生生推高的。
面对每天数十亿次调用带来的天价账单，强如手握千亿现金的苹果，也感受到了沉重的肉痛感。
因此，苹果不得不把这一笔开销转嫁到消费者头上，特努斯在财报电话会上也毫不掩饰这一点：
今天的 iCloud+ 已经不再局限于云存储。我们在探索将更多进阶 AI 能力融入服务订阅，包括设置合理的服务器调用阈值并提供扩容方案，这会为服务业务打开全新的增长空间。
之后咱在 iPhone 上调用进阶 AI 能力时，屏幕上很可能就会弹出一条提示：今日免费额度已用尽，请升级你的 iCloud+ 套餐。
苹果的一切都在变贵，全怪 AI
除了云端源源不断产生的 Token 费用，AI 浪潮对普通消费者最直接的冲击，是硬件全线变贵。
还是那个我们都太熟悉的叙事：全球 AI 数据中心对 HBM 和高规格 DRAM 的疯狂扫货，重创了消费级芯片的供应链。
特努斯在会上坦言，这一轮内存成本的涨幅是「前所未有」的。为了锁定供应，苹果单季度的资本与制造采购支出就高达 330 亿美元。
这笔沉重的上游硬件成本，很快就以标签的形式，贴到了每一个消费者的面前。在最新的产品线里，苹果几乎对所有走量的基础款动了刀：
Mac mini 起售价从 4499 元一路飙涨至 6999 元；iPad Air 涨至 5999 元；MacBook Air 与 iPhone 18 Pro 的起步门槛更是双双推高至万元关口（9999 元）。
光是涨价还不够，苹果甚至在新品推出的节奏上动了心思——便宜好卖的基础款延后发布，只拿最贵的新品出来卖。
今年 9 月秋季发布会，苹果打破了近二十年的惯例：走量的 iPhone 18 标准版被延期，整个下半年只留下了高价的 Pro 系列与首款折叠屏 iPhone Duo。
高盛分析师在电话会上专门追问了标准版延期的原因，特努斯对此语焉不详，但商业逻辑早已不言自明——在元器件暴涨的年份，苹果必须全力推销均价更高、利润更厚的产品。
我们很高兴在 9 月推出了 iPhone Duo 和 18 Pro，同时还有 iPhone 17、iPhone Air 继续充实整个阵容。当然，我们从不对未来的产品路线图发表评论。
然而，售价高达 21999 元的 iPhone Duo，一上市就遭遇了品控与产能的双重拷问。
首批新机发售后不久，网络上便陆续出现了消费者关于内屏破裂、出现黑线绿线的投诉。
在接受路透社专访时，特努斯不得不亲自出面灭火。
只有极小比例（a very small percentage）的 iPhone Duo 遇到了显示故障，苹果正在全力为受影响用户免费更换整机。
与裂屏同样棘手的，是折叠内屏与钛合金复杂铰链的产能爬坡困境。
特努斯在财报会上直言，目前 iPhone Duo 的供货「处于极度受限（constrained）状态，并且在现阶段完全无法预测供需何时能够平衡」。
同样的超高端策略还发生在 Mac 上：苹果首次推出了带触控功能的 MacBook Pro（PROLED XDR 显示屏），起步价直接定在了 22999 元。
面对硬件涨价带来的超高定价，普通消费者的钱包正承受着空前的挤压。
当分析师在电话会上问及消费者是否还能承受高昂售价时，特努斯给出的解药显得颇为无奈：
苹果将全力押注年年焕新（Apple Upgrade Program）和 24 期免息分期，试图用「每天一杯咖啡钱」的话术，来对冲硬件涨价带来的剧烈痛感。
苹果不生产 Token，只是大模型的搬运工
在消费级硬件全线承压、成本节节攀升的阴云下，这份财报里却有一个业务实现了令人意外的大爆发——Mac。
第四财季，Mac 业务单季营收达到 108 亿美元，同比大幅增长 24%，增速远超其他所有硬件品类。
支撑起这 108 亿美元大盘的，明面上依然是走量的 MacBook Air、新推出的 MacBook Neo 以及开学季带来的常规换机潮。
但在常规的消费底盘之外，Mac 还在悄然迎来另一股意料之外的新需求。
据路透社与 The Information 报道，随着大模型落地成本失控，租用微软、亚马逊或英伟达云端算力的高昂 Token 账单，正逼得不少中小企业与开发者将目光转向本地——
而配备超高带宽统一内存的高配 Mac，正在成为他们逃离云端算力通胀的避难所。
Apple Silicon 芯片天生具备的高带宽统一内存架构，让一台配置 128GB 甚至 192GB 统一内存的 Mac Studio 或 Mac mini，售价只要数万元人民币，就能直接在本地离线跑起 70B 规模的开源大模型。
这不仅省去了按量计费的云端 Token 费用，也消除了企业对数据外泄的顾虑。
特努斯在电话会上也印证了这一势头，他提到 Mac 正迎来历史上最好的企业采购周期，甚至在菲律宾斩获了 17 万台 MacBook Neo 的批量教育与政企大单。
特努斯执掌苹果交出的第一份成绩单，与其说是在庆祝「史上最佳财年」，倒不如说是苹果面对失控的算力账单时，一次务实的商业摊牌。
当 Token 贵到连苹果都觉得肉痛时，那个免费造梦的 AI 时代叙事，就已经正式翻篇了。
本文由 AI图鉴自动抓取并翻译，版权归原作者所有；如需查看原文请点下方链接。
Everything about apples is getting expensive.
Today, Apple publish is 2026 fiscal year 4th fiscal year and full fiscal year performance. This is the first report card since John Ternus succeeded Cook as CEO.
From book figures, performance can be described as fairly dynamic, directly recording the best financial year in apple history.
A single-season collection of $114,477 million represents an increase of 12 per cent over the same period; net profit of $30,711 million represents an increase of 12 per cent over the same period. Total revenue for the full fiscal year reached a record $47.8 billion.
Even the Great China, which has been under continuous pressure, has seen a 21 percent increase in single-season run-off, thanks to the swing of new machines in the fall.
At the subsequent press conference, however, the picture suddenly changed.
The new official, Tenus, and the management, were repeatedly questioned at the conference about not just the beautiful sales record, but the "cost out of control", the "remand price increases" and the "capacity constraints".
In the run-up to the bi-eleventh and the end of the year, the profit expectations given by apples are somewhat conservative: the next quarter's Maori rate has fallen to 45 to 46 per cent, well below the current quarter's rate of 47.9 per cent.
In the face of analysts' queries about soaring costs and hardware pricing, Tenus did not evade:
This memory price, which we have never seen before, does put direct pressure on our hardware pricing. But we have always focused our pricing on building the best products and delivering value, and phasing and repurchase schemes are becoming key factors underpinning purchasing power.
2.5 billion times a day, Siri, apples want to pay for themselves.
For a long time, apples have been walking on two legs and making very good money: on the one hand, hardware earns a large premium of Maori, on the other hand, Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud+ and packed Apple One, which continues to sink high and sticky subscription revenues.
As for the basic functions that are embedded in the system — whether it be the number of alarm clocks that Siri sets out every day, or the sort of photographs in the albums — they are naturally a one-time buyout experience in the habit of the vast majority of people, with no additional cost.
But Siri AI changed everything.
Tenus revealed at the conference that Siri now had to process over 2.5 billion user requests per day.
Small end-side models that cannot solve cross-application movements, long text rewrites and complex reasoning all depend on Apple-based Private Cloud Company (private cloud computing cluster).
Every time a user calls Siri to organize a meeting, generate pictures or pick up a schedule, the cloud server burns real and silver Token and electricity charges.
And this previously non-existent “operational maintenance tax” is crushing the profit margin of apples at an alarming rate.
According to the financial statements, the R & D expenditure for Apple 2026 surged to $45,765 million in fiscal year, an increase of 32.5 per cent over the same period and more than double the total revenue.
In response to the analyst, CFO Parek stated that the sharp increase in R & D costs had been driven by hard-core expenditure on LLM cloud infrastructure and reasoning.
Faced with billions of daily calls and billings, apples with hundreds of billions of cash were also feeling heavy pain.
As a result, apples had to transfer the money to the consumer, and Tenus did not hide it at the press conference:
Today's iClaud+ is no longer confined to cloud storage. We are exploring the integration of more advanced AI capabilities into service subscriptions, including the setting of reasonable server thresholds and the provision of outreach programmes, which will open up completely new growth spaces for service operations.
And then when we call the IPhone step AI capability, it is likely that a hint will pop up on the screen: free quota is exhausted today, please upgrade your iCloud+ package.
Everything about apples is getting expensive.
In addition to the cost of Token, which is constantly generated by cloud sources, the most direct impact of the AI wave on ordinary consumers is the price of hardware.
Or the narrative that we're all too familiar with: the crazy sweep of HBM and the high-spectrum DRAM across the global AID data centre, which hit the supply chain of consumer chips.
Tenus stated at the meeting that the cost of this round of memory had increased “unprecedented”. In order to lock the supply, the single-quarter capital and manufacturing purchases of apples amounted to $33 billion.
This heavy upstream hardware cost quickly reached every consumer in the form of a label. In the latest product line, apples cut almost all of the walking base:
Mac Mini's starting sale price rose sharply from $4499 to $6999; iPad Air rose to $5999; and MacBook Air and iPhone 18 Pro's starting threshold was double-throwing to 10,000 yuan.
It's not enough to raise the price. Apple is even at the pace of the new product. publish, only the most expensive new product.
In the fall of September this year, at publish, apples broke the practice of almost two decades: the walk-through iPhone 18 standard version was postponed, leaving only the expensive iPhone Duo folding screen of the Pro series and the cash.
During a telephone conference, Goldman Sachs analysts specifically asked why the standard version had been extended, and Tenus was not clear about it, but business logic had long been self-evident — apples had to do their best to sell products with higher average prices and higher profits in the years when the meta-wares surged.
We were happy to launch iPhone Duo and 18 Pro in September, while iPhone 17 and iPhone Air continued to enrich the entire formation. Of course, we never comment on future product road maps.
However, the iPhone Duo, whose sale price was up to $21999, had been subjected to double torture with product control and capacity as soon as it was listed.
Soon after the first new machines were sold, there were complaints from consumers over the Internet about the breakdown of the inner screen and the emergence of a black-line green line.
In an interview with Reuters, Tenus had to put out the fire himself.
Only a very small percentage of iPhone Duo (a very small percentage) has encountered a display of failure and apples are doing their best to replace the whole machine for the affected users free of charge.
What's as difficult as cracking screens is the collapse of inner screens and complex titanium alloy chains that can climb the slopes.
At the press conference, Tenus stated that the current supply of iPhone Duo is "in extremely restricted condition and at this stage it is completely impossible to predict when supply and demand will be balanced".
The same super-high-end strategy occurred on Mac: Apple first introduced MacBook Pro (PROLED XDR screen) with a touchable function, with a starting price of $22999.
Faced with the super-high pricing associated with the price increases in hardware, the purses of ordinary consumers are being squeezed in an unprecedented manner.
When analysts asked at the teleconference whether consumers could still afford the high prices, the antidote given by Tenus seemed impeccable:
Apple will be fully committed to the year-old Apple Upgrade Programme and 24 interest-free break periods, trying to use the phrase "one cup of coffee a day" to feel the pain caused by the price increase in the flushing hardware.
Apples don't produce Token. It's just LLM. Workers
Under the cloud of full-line pressure and cost escalation of consumer-grade hardware, one of the operations in the financial statements achieved an unexpected outbreak — Mac.
In the fourth financial season, Mac received $10.8 billion in a single season, a significant increase of 24 per cent over the same period, much faster than all other hardware items.
It's still a walking MacBook Air, a new MacBook Neo, and a routine switch from the opening season.
But other than the conventional consumption chassis, Mac is still waiting for another unexpected new demand.
According to Reuters and The Information, as LLM's landing costs run out of control, renting the high Token bill of Microsoft, Amazon, or Weeda Cloud, is forcing many small and medium-sized enterprises and developers to turn their eyes to the local--
Mac, with a unified memory of superhigh bandwidth, is becoming a refuge from cloud-based inflation.
The original high-bandwidth unified memory structure of the Apple Silicon chip, which allows a Mac Studio or Mac Mini, with a unified memory of 128GB and even 192GB, to be sold at a price of tens of thousands of yuan, can run directly from the local offline to an open source of 70B size LLM.
This not only saves the cloud token, which is measured, but also removes the concerns of enterprises about data leakage.
Tenus also confirmed this momentum at a teleconference when he mentioned that Mac was ushering in the best business procurement cycle in history, even with 170,000 MacBook Neo's bulk education and government bills in the Philippines.
The first card that Tenus handed over was a practical business show, not so much a celebration of the best fiscal year in history, but of apples facing out-of-control bills.
When Token was so expensive that apples were sore, that free-of-charge AI narrative was officially over.
Auto-fetched and translated by AI Atlas. All rights belong to the original author.