For years, Apple has wielded its enormous purchasing power like a shield, negotiating favorable component pricing that smaller competitors could only dream of. But the current NAND flash memory market is proving that even a company with nearly $200 billion in annual revenue and a legendary supply chain operation cannot fully insulate itself from the forces of supply and demand. SSD costs are climbing sharply, and the ripple effects are being felt across the entire consumer electronics industry — Apple included. According to a report from AppleInsider , NAND flash prices have surged dramatically over the past several quarters, driven by a combination of constrained supply, rising demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure, and strategic production cuts by major memory manufacturers. The result is a market environment where the cost of solid-state storage — a critical component in every iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch — is meaningfully higher than it was just a year ago.…