A major price hike is coming, and AI is to blame.<\/p>\n
If you were planning to wait until 2026 to upgrade your phone or laptop, you might end up regretting it. The explosion of artificial intelligence is sending shockwaves through the components market,<\/strong> threatening to drive up the cost of our future electronic devices.<\/p>\n This warning comes straight from China but affects every smartphone brand. During a recent earnings presentation, Xiaomi president Lu Weibing didn\u2019t sugarcoat the situation. According to him, the industry is heading into major financial turbulence.<\/strong><\/p>\n The root of the problem? Memory, specifically DRAM and NAND chips, which are essential for every device. Generative AI, which demands enormous computing power, requires increasingly powerful servers.<\/p>\n These data centers are currently consuming a massive share of the world\u2019s memory chip production<\/strong>, creating shortages for the rest of the market, including smartphones.<\/p>\n As Xiaomi\u2019s president explained, supply and demand for memory chips are already extremely tight, and the situation is only going to get worse. <\/strong><\/p>\n Naturally, that means manufacturers will feel heavy cost pressure next year. A significant jump in retail prices seems almost inevitable. Some reports already point to a surge of nearly 60% in Samsung\u2019s DDR5 module prices in just a few weeks.<\/p>\n When manufacturing costs blow up<\/p>\n To understand why your next phone will cost more, you have to look under the hood. Memory, both RAM and storage, makes up a big portion of a device\u2019s production cost. And according to industry firm TrendForce, that portion is rising quickly.<\/strong><\/p>\n Their projections show that DRAM prices could jump more than 75% throughout 2025. For manufacturers, that translates to an 8 to 10% increase in total smartphone production costs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n And since profit margins can\u2019t stretch forever, the final sticker price is what ends up absorbing the shock.<\/p>\n There is another way for brands to keep prices down, but it is not a very appealing one, reducing improvements or cutting features in next-gen models.<\/p>\n Should you buy now or wait?<\/p>\n Given this outlook, timing becomes crucial. If your phone is slowing down or your laptop sounds like a jet engine whenever you open Chrome, waiting may not be your best strategy.<\/strong><\/p>\n Analysts agree that today\u2019s prices, although high, are probably still lower than what we will see 12 to 18 months from now. Taking advantage of end-of-year deals, like Black Friday, might be the smarter move.<\/strong><\/p>\n Especially now that device longevity is improving, major brands like Google, Samsung, and Honor are offering up to 7 years of software updates. Buying a high-end model today could save you from paying an even higher price in 2026 or 2027, when costs are expected to climb even more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major price hike is coming, and AI is to blame. If you were planning to wait until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3159],"tags":[547,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-593159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115611288399009424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}