Recently, many industry analysts have pointed out that this wave of memory shortages is quite intense. According to reports from Korean media, affected by the supply crisis, leading laptop manufacturers like Lenovo and HP are re-evaluating their product plans for next year, and delaying new product launches is already highly likely.

The key figures are quite sobering—a report from TrendForce indicates that DDR5 memory prices are expected to rise another 45% by the end of 2026. At the same time, the AI industry continues to absorb NAND flash capacity, causing SSD prices to keep climbing. These two factors combined mean that storage costs will account for 23% of the total material costs of a laptop.

To maintain profit margins, some manufacturers are even planning to raise the prices of high-end products by 30%. Although all companies are urgently signing preliminary contracts with Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix to lock in supply, it still cannot fully offset the rising raw material costs.

Interestingly, different manufacturers are adopting very different responses. Dell and Framework have directly announced price increases. ASUS once floated the idea of producing DDR5 memory in-house to alleviate shortages but later denied it. The American custom PC brand Maingear took an even more extreme approach—encouraging customers to send their own memory modules to the factory for assembly. While imaginative, the practical value of this is limited.

For smaller manufacturers without direct bargaining power, the situation is even more difficult.

Looking back at the overall PC market, there was a slight recovery in 2025 due to the forced upgrade demand for Windows 11. However, by 2026, the upgrade cycle will have largely played out, and combined with potential delays in new product launches and widespread price increases, consumer hesitation will significantly intensify. Most industry analysts agree that a decline in laptop sales in 2026 is already a foregone conclusion.