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PC prices to go up in 2010

by on13 January 2010


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Improving economic climate to blame


According to Gartner beancounters, PC prices will jump in 2010 due to tight supply of key components. Recession woes and cautious planning on the part of manufacturers have resulted in a lower production volumes, causing component prices to go up.

Memory prices have already spiked. DDR3 prices are up 23 percent over last month's and that's just part of the problem. Most vendors are using both DDR2 and DDR3 memory in a variety of products, as well as notebook SO-DIMMs, complicating matters even further, as they have to stock up on each type.

LCD panels are also in short supply and retail prices are currently stagnating, but they are expected to jump by as much as 20 percent. Hard drive prices are also increasing and optical drives are in short supply, too.

All this will result in slightly higher retail prices and lower margins for OEMs and system integrators. However, on the bright side, supply issues might force them to innovate and find new ways of attracting impoverished consumers.

So, more than a year after the recession started we're still making less money, but instead of paying less for stuff made by people who managed to survive mass layoffs and had their wages cut in half, we will soon be paying more. Makes sense? Of course not.
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