IDC recently released a statement that there is a high probability that PC sales for the consumer market will decline by five percent to nine percent in 2026 due to the increasingly expensive prices of memory components.
As we know, many, if not all computer manufacturers will increase the prices of their computer offerings next year to absorb the rising cost of components.
According to IDC and several other reports, the main reason this is expected to happen is because the world's largest memory manufacturers such as Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron will all focus on producing HBM memory for the next one to two years, due to the very high demand for it by companies developing AI technology.
The high production of HBM memory has caused companies to reduce the production of DDR memory not only to maximize profits, but also because HBM memory chips are larger than DDR, and memory manufacturers do not want to increase the production capacity of the component.
Companies like Lenovo, which previously reported buying additional memory supplies, are expected to raise their product prices by the middle of next year if memory prices do not recover. Companies like Acer and Dell are also expected to raise the prices of their computers around the first quarter of 2026.
Microsoft's decision to end support for the Windows 10 operating system and force users to use Windows 11, which now requires the use of 16GB of memory on computers to support the AI CoPilot technology, also worsened the situation for many users who were forced to buy new computers to stay on the Windows operating system.
