Asus says PC price pain is easing

Asus claims PC price rises will cool in coming quarters, with single-digit bumps expected by the third quarter of 2026.
The outfit says the worst of the component price nonsense may be behind it, despite earlier warnings of shortages lasting until 2028.
Reports had suggested memory and storage costs would keep climbing, as AI demand gobbles capacity and leaves PC buyers paying the bill.
Asus general manager Yi-Hsiang Liao told United Daily News that the company’s product prices have risen 30 per cent since the fourth quarter of 2025.
Liao said more price rises are coming, but they should not be as ugly as the recent double-digit wallops.
He said the PC market is expected to rebound, helped by slight declines in memory and storage prices.
Liao Yixiang thought that PC product prices will still be slightly adjusted in the third quarter, but the increase is expected to be only in the single digits. The main reason is that the prices of components such as memory and hard drives have recently fallen back, and considering consumer acceptance, a large increase may exceed the market’s tolerance.”
That is handy for Asus and other PC makers, which have been watching buyers wince at inflated laptop and desktop prices.
The warning is that nobody knows whether the relief lasts beyond one quarter or turns into another round of corporate wishful thinking.
Higher prices and a 10 to 15 per cent decline in the PC market are worrying vendors that leaned heavily on the segment.
Revenue may remain flat or grow slightly, largely because higher prices offset the impact of lower unit shipments.
Asus posted a 25 per cent revenue rise from the previous year, driven mainly by high-end and premium products.
Those machines now account for 60 per cent of its total PC share. The same products were short of stock or selling at daft prices during the worst supply squeeze.
Some experts still reckon memory prices could rise by 50 per cent per quarter, with proper relief unlikely before 2028.
Spot prices are not exactly cheering anyone up, with consumer DRAM and SSDs still seeing double-digit rises and memory up 89 per cent from the previous quarter.
Asus may be right that price hikes are cooling, but the market does not yet look remotely normal.