Global "chip shortage" drives up consumer electronics prices Industry experts: Computers, smartphones may increase by over 20%

Cailian Press, March 20 (Editor Liu Rui) As the global shortage of storage chips continues to be difficult to alleviate, multiple technology industry insiders warn that the “chip shortage” issue is inevitably being transmitted downstream, with prices of many consumer electronic products already rising significantly, and this trend is expected to continue for a long time.

Is a price surge for consumer electronics coming?

Amid the artificial intelligence boom, tech giants including Google, Microsoft, and Meta are purchasing memory chips in large quantities to support their AI centers, leading to a global shortage of storage chips, especially for traditional electronic products.

“All these AI data centers powering various AI tools need a lot of memory, and they are currently consuming memory at a rapid pace,” said Mike Agerbo, a well-known tech media figure and CEO of GetConnect, this week.

Given the increasing memory shortage, many industry experts predict that prices for numerous consumer electronic products—such as laptops, tablets, and even smartphones—will rise by 20% or more.

“I believe prices will rise sharply in the next 12 to 24 months,” predicted Dwight Dubowits of Concept Computers in North Vancouver. Dubowits has been in the computer industry for over 40 years and stated that the memory shortage is having a huge impact on the computer industry.

He stated:

“I think the $600 laptops and cheap desktops have basically disappeared at this stage.”

“Now entry-level computer products are priced between $800 and $900. We are seeing that to buy a basic-function, reasonably quality laptop now costs as much as $1,200 or $1,300.”

Dubowits also mentioned that some local dealers are forced to lower costs by offering systems with less memory.

“Consumers need to ensure that these systems are actually upgradable before purchasing a computer,” Dubowits said, “Many systems, especially laptops, have little or no space to add more memory after purchase.”

“Chip shortage” unlikely to ease in the short term

The current “chip shortage” phenomenon has particularly severe effects on the gaming industry. A company specializing in custom-built desktop computers, GamerTech Toronto, stated that its memory expenses are now four times what they used to be.

“Basically, the cost of assembling an entire computer has risen, so we have to pass this cost onto the final price… This may be the new normal for memory prices and the prices of all computer components.”

Currently, most of the world’s memory chips are manufactured and controlled by the “big three”—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, which dominate over 90% of the global memory market share. Experts predict that the current memory shortage could last until 2027.

“I suggest that if you plan to buy a computer in the next six months, you should hurry and buy now because I can only see computer prices continuing to rise,” Agerbo said.