PC prices are going up due to a shortage of a number of components, and the situation isn’t expected to change in the coming quarters.
PC prices are going up due to a shortage of a number of components, and the situation isn’t expected to change in the coming quarters.
A shortage of DRAM, SSDs, batteries, and LCDs have conspired to drive up PC prices, Gianfranco Lanci, corporate president and chief operating officer at Lenovo, said during an earnings call on Thursday. It’s difficult to pin a number on the price increase because of the number of PC configurations available.
The cost of purchasing these components is going up, which is triggering PC prices to also rise, said Lanci, a PC industry veteran. The shortage of components like memory will continue, Lanci said.
As component supplies shrink, PC prices will rise, said Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner. Moreover, PC makers are raising prices to squeeze more profits out of the shrinking PC market, Kitagawa said.
The PC buyer profile is also changing, with gamers and millennials willing to spend more money on PCs.
That’s changing the mix of laptops, desktops, and 2-in-1s being shipped by PC makers, who are focused on selling higher-priced products that can deliver better margins.
But low-cost PCs won’t go away, Kitagawa said. There will always be cheap laptops available, though those markets aren’t growing and not attractive to PC makers.
