“This laptop was $849 in March 2026 (Have pictures to prove). Why is the price now $1,000 for the exact same product?”
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I don't disbelieve you on this point. I do disbelieve that you haven't read a newspaper or watched a newscast in the past 3 months and change. It's called INFLATION. It is caused by several major factors, probably including the Trump tariffs, but in this case I don't think you can lay most of the blame to him, but rather on the AI competition, where so many companies are snapping up two of the most necessary computer components: RAM and drives (both solid state and platter). Both have jumped up by 100% to over 300% since late-2025. Prices for mainstream DDR5 memory have soared. A 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 RAM kit that sold for $100-$200 then is now a MINIMUM of $350 to $375. A 32GB DDR4 kit has tripled, jumping from a historical low range of $60 to $90, to $150 to $193. SSD manufacturing costs have gone up 246% for the raw wafer, the highest in DECADES. Consumer NVMe Drives like a 512GB NVMe Gen4 SSD spiked 54% in a single quarter, and UFS flash over 100%. Tech manufacturing companies have decided to pass these costs to all consumers (surprise!), rather than taking the easy path of just shutting down and going out of business. Apple officially raised prices across its entire MacBook and iPad lineups by up to $500 per device, specifically citing "unsustainable" memory costs. Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Series X/S consoles by $100 to $150 and have stopped production of the 2TB model to focus on the more profitable 1TB. This has also affected cellphones; 4x price increases in RAM have now made that component 50% of the overall price on mid-range models. Don't expect any price reduction for at least 2 years, which is when the newest plants, currently under production, MIGHT be online and providing some relief (although it is possible that PRC will rank up production of RAM (at least) to help in the interim). In fact, current forecasts predict an additional 40% to 50% price increase on these key parts through the end of the year, and another 40% year-on-year surge is projected for 2027. Analysts warn that if these trends hold, sub-$500 entry-level PCs will effectively disappear from store shelves by 2028 because memory margins are eating up all profit. So either hold your nose and pay, or wait, or look for some deals from those who are upgrading and selling their current models.
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