The supply shortage in the memory market in the technology world is increasing pressure on personal computer and smartphone prices. Recent reports shared by IDC show that the increasing difficulty in accessing consumer-grade DRAM memory and the high-bandwidth memory demand from AI data centers are triggering price increases.
RAM prices are steadily rising.
This situation in the sector indicates that price increases of up to 8% are on the horizon for computers and mobile devices. The shift in production capacity towards AI chips, which have higher profit margins, is creating a significant cost burden on standard consumer hardware.
According to IDC’s analysis, the computer market is expected to shrink by 4.9% next year. If the imbalance between supply and demand worsens further, this contraction rate could reach 8.9%.
Industry giants Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus, and Acer have confirmed preparations for price increases of up to 8% on PCs due to this rise in memory costs. These price increases coincide with a period when users are turning to AI-focused computers requiring more RAM capacity, following Microsoft’s end of Windows 10 support in October.
The rise in costs will not be limited to computers; the smartphone and tablet market will also be directly affected by this crisis. While average phone sales prices are expected to increase by 3 to 5 percent in a medium-term scenario next year, this rate could exceed 8 percent in a negative scenario.
Although major manufacturers like Samsung and Apple are in a more protected position in the short term thanks to long-term supply agreements, the tightening market could disrupt plans to increase RAM capacity from 12 GB to 16 GB in next-generation flagship devices.
Experts emphasize that this difficult period in the NAND and DRAM sector could continue until 2027. It is stated that brands producing budget-friendly and mid-range devices, in particular, will be forced to pass on the cost increases directly to the consumer due to low profit margins.
If the memory crisis persists as predicted until 2027, both new hardware purchases and storage upgrades like SSDs will become significantly more expensive for consumers than in previous years.
