The dwindling prices of personal computers, portables and mobile phones had resulted in a largely pampered consumer base waiting for price drops year on year. In truth, the Financial times reports that since 2000, semiconductor components have declined an average of 7.8% every passing year which is what allowed to the present day $500(~SGD$900) full fledged portable and $400(~SGD$700) desktop computer. It also allowed $300(~SGD$500) Netbooks to thrive in the past 2 years. However, with the move from DDR2 to DDR3, it appears DRAM chips would create a 23% increase in price to OEM and cost of LCDs are also looking to shoot up by that amount.
With analysts projecting a 2.3% cost increase for OEMs this year, my advice would be to either grab a new computer now or just bite the bullet as it would appear that PC prices has really hit rock bottom and are on their way up for a change.
With razor-thin margins afflicting OEMs and rising cost of manufacturing and components, no doubt this time, finally the consumer suffers after years of pampering from the industry. Let’s hope that OEMs keep their prices competitve whilst not compromising on product quality and longeivity which is the reason most products have to be replaced.
GeekStrike RSS
