PC and laptop price hikes expected in coming quarters

Sources in the Taiwanese supply chain told DigiTimes that PC vendors are planning to increase retail prices in Q3 2017, when new models with the revised Kaby Lake CPUs are expected to hit the market. The reason for the price hike is the continued increase in pricing of computer components, which includes display panels, RAM, SSDs, and li-ion batteries.

Lenovo COO Gianfranco Lanci, at an analyst conference in February, said that PC component shortages have not improved and the company will raise its PC prices in order to reflect some of the increased costs.

Asustek Computer CEO Jerry Shen also recently noted that the company's biggest challenges in 2017 are exchange rate fluctuations and component price hikes. To minimize the impact from the component pricing, Asustek is also planning to increase the prices for its new products.

The site notes smaller PC vendors will be hit by more headwinds and component makers are giving priority to big vendor s as they place bigger orders.

In a different post, DigiTimes claims laptop makers plan to hike prices by 5-15 percent in Q2 2017 due to rising component cost.

PC vendors have already seen solid state drive (SSD) quotes for March increase 30%. Panel prices, after seeing an 8-9% increase in the fourth quarter of 2016, are currently stable since panel makers still have some inventory, but as stockpiles deplete, panel prices are expected to start rising in the second half.