{"id":46453,"date":"2026-01-02T01:57:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T01:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=46453"},"modified":"2026-01-02T01:57:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T01:57:46","slug":"c1dzdndzlxqoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/02\/c1dzdndzlxqoat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Why everything from your phone to your PC may get pricier in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div data-component=\"byline-block\" class=\"sc-3b6b161a-0 dPVOKT\">\n<div data-testid=\"byline\" class=\"sc-573fa0e8-0 bWRWzH\"><span data-testid=\"byline-contributors\" class=\"sc-573fa0e8-11 cOQNNv\"><\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"byline-contributors-contributor-0\" class=\"sc-573fa0e8-5 gXJgDY\">\n<p><span class=\"sc-573fa0e8-7 gqeTMs\">Tom Gerken<\/span><span data-testid=\"byline-contributors-contributor-0-role-location\" class=\"sc-573fa0e8-8 bIfajQ\">Technology reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure>\n<div data-component=\"image-block\" class=\"sc-3b6b161a-0 gtLOOD\">\n<div data-testid=\"hero-image\" class=\"sc-5340b511-1 cMIbKV\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Tears-flowers-and-silence-in-Bondi-and-Streetings-fury.png?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/240\/cpsprodpb\/f05a\/live\/c9053c70-e4c1-11f0-ae58-3d4c41eac55f.jpg.webp 240w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/f05a\/live\/c9053c70-e4c1-11f0-ae58-3d4c41eac55f.jpg.webp 320w,https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Why-everything-from-your-phone-to-your-PC-may-get.webp.webp 480w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/640\/cpsprodpb\/f05a\/live\/c9053c70-e4c1-11f0-ae58-3d4c41eac55f.jpg.webp 640w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/800\/cpsprodpb\/f05a\/live\/c9053c70-e4c1-11f0-ae58-3d4c41eac55f.jpg.webp 800w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/cpsprodpb\/f05a\/live\/c9053c70-e4c1-11f0-ae58-3d4c41eac55f.jpg.webp 1024w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1536\/cpsprodpb\/f05a\/live\/c9053c70-e4c1-11f0-ae58-3d4c41eac55f.jpg.webp 1536w\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Why-everything-from-your-phone-to-your-PC-may-get.webp.webp?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Getty Images Ram chips sacked on top of one another. They are green rectangles with black boxes, and golden marks at the bottom where they would plug in to a computer.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/><span class=\"sc-5340b511-2 jVqbAn\">Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"sc-536eff7b-0 gnQokQ\">Ram is a part of every computer you use<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-3b6b161a-0 dPVOKT\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The cost of lots of the devices we all use could be forced up in 2026 because the price of Ram &#8211; once one of the cheapest computer components &#8211; has more than doubled since October 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The tech powers everything from smartphones to smart TVs, as well as things like medical devices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Its price has shot up because of the explosive growth in the data centres which power AI, which need Ram too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">That&#8217;s caused an imbalance between supply and demand which means everyone has to pay more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Manufacturers often choose to swallow small cost increases, but big ones tend to get passed on to consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">And these increases are anything but small.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-3b6b161a-0 dPVOKT\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;We are being quoted costs around 500% higher than they were only a couple of months ago,&#8221; said Steve Mason, general manager of CyberPowerPC, which builds computers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said there &#8220;will come a point&#8221; where these increased component costs will &#8220;force&#8221; manufacturers to &#8220;make decisions about pricing&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;If it uses memory, or storage, there is the potential for price increases,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;The manufacturers will have choices to make, as will consumers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Ram &#8211; or random access memory &#8211; is used to store code while you use a device. It is a critical component of almost every kind of computer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Without it would be impossible for you to read this article, for example.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">And with the component being so ubiquitous, Danny Williams from rival computer building site PCSpecialist said he expected price increases to continue &#8220;well into 2026&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;The market has been very buoyant in 2025 and if memory prices do not fall back a little I would expect a reduction in consumer demand in 2026,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said he&#8217;d seen &#8220;a varied impact&#8221; across different Ram producers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Some vendors have larger inventories and therefore their price increases are more subtle at perhaps 1.5x to 2x,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">But he said other firms did not have a large amount of stock &#8211; and they had increased prices by &#8220;up to 5x&#8221; more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><h2 class=\"sc-f98b1ad2-0 gXmhTb\">AI making prices rise<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-3b6b161a-0 dPVOKT\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Chris Miller, author of Chip War, called AI &#8220;the main factor&#8221; driving demand for computer memory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;There&#8217;s been a surge of demand for memory chips, driven above all by the high-end High Bandwidth Memory that AI requires,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;This has led to higher prices across different types of memory chips.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said prices &#8220;often fluctuate dramatically&#8221; based on &#8220;demand and supply&#8221; &#8211; and demand is significantly up right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">And Mike Howard from Tech Insights told the BBC it came down to cloud service providers finalising their memory requirements for 2026 and 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said that gave the people who make Ram a clear picture of demand &#8211; and it was &#8220;unmistakeable&#8221; that supply &#8220;will not meet the levels that Amazon, Google, and other hyperscalers are planning for&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;With both demand clarity and supply constraints converging, suppliers have steadily pushed prices upward, in some cases aggressively,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Some suppliers have even paused issuing price quotes, a rare move that signals confidence that future prices will rise further.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said some manufacturers will have seen this coming and built up their inventory ahead of time to help mitigate the price rises &#8211; but called those firms &#8220;outliers&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;In PCs, memory typically accounts for 15 to 20 percent of total cost, but current pricing has pushed that toward 30 to 40 percent,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Margins in most consumer categories are not deep enough to absorb these increases.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><h2 class=\"sc-f98b1ad2-0 gXmhTb\">The bottom line for 2026<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\" class=\"sc-3b6b161a-0 dPVOKT\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">With prices trending upwards, customers will likely be left deciding whether to pay more or accept a less powerful device.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Most of the market intelligence we have received would suggest pricing and supply will be a challenge worldwide throughout 2026 into 2027,&#8221; Mr Mason said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">And some big firms have turned their nose up at the consumer market altogether.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Micron, previously one of the biggest sellers of Ram, announced in December it would stop selling its Crucial brand to focus on AI demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;It removes one of the biggest players from the market,&#8221; Mr Mason said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;On the one hand, that&#8217;s less choice for consumers &#8211; on the other hand, if their entire production ploughs into AI, it should free up capacity for the others to make more for consumers, so it may balance out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Howard said a typical laptop, with 16GB of Ram, could see its manufacturing cost increase by $40 to $50 (\u00a330 to \u00a337) in 2026 &#8211; and this &#8220;will likely be passed on to consumers&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Smartphones will also see upwards pressure on their prices,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;A typical smartphone could see it&#8217;s cost to build increase $30 which, again, will likely get passed on directly to consumer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">And Mr Williams said there might be another outcome of increased prices too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Computers are a commodity &#8211; an everyday item that people need in a modern day world,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;With the increase in memory prices, consumers will need to decide to either pay a higher price for the performance they need, or accept a compromise in a lower performing device.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">There is, of course, another option, says Mr Williams &#8211; consumers might have to &#8220;make do with old tech for a little longer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure>\n<div data-component=\"image-block\" class=\"sc-3b6b161a-0 GunZh\">\n<div data-testid=\"image\" class=\"sc-5340b511-1 cMIbKV\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Tears-flowers-and-silence-in-Bondi-and-Streetings-fury.png?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/240\/cpsprodpb\/41d3\/live\/348b21e0-26a8-11f0-8f57-b7237f6a66e6.png.webp 240w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/41d3\/live\/348b21e0-26a8-11f0-8f57-b7237f6a66e6.png.webp 320w,https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767319065_361_Why-everything-from-your-phone-to-your-PC-may-get.webp.webp 480w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/640\/cpsprodpb\/41d3\/live\/348b21e0-26a8-11f0-8f57-b7237f6a66e6.png.webp 640w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/800\/cpsprodpb\/41d3\/live\/348b21e0-26a8-11f0-8f57-b7237f6a66e6.png.webp 800w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/cpsprodpb\/41d3\/live\/348b21e0-26a8-11f0-8f57-b7237f6a66e6.png.webp 1024w,https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1536\/cpsprodpb\/41d3\/live\/348b21e0-26a8-11f0-8f57-b7237f6a66e6.png.webp 1536w\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767319065_361_Why-everything-from-your-phone-to-your-PC-may-get.webp.webp?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A green promotional banner with black squares and rectangles forming pixels, moving in from the right. The text says: \u201cTech Decoded: The world\u2019s biggest tech news in your inbox every Monday.\u201d\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#phone #pricier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom GerkenTechnology reporter Getty Images Ram is a part of every computer you use The cost of lots of the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46455,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46453\/revisions\/46455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}