PC, chip prices likely to continue rising til end of year — Lenovo PH official

MANILA — Prices of laptops, desktops, as well as PC components like RAM and SSDs are likely to continue rising at least through the rest of the year, an official of Lenovo Philippines said. 

Michael Ngan, Philippine country head for Lenovo, said he expects device makers to continue competing with AI firms for these critical PC components. 

“That’s what the industry is saying—kaya nagmamahal because of AI,” Ngan said recently during a roundtable with tech journalists at a company event in Cavite.

“They know where the money is. Kung ako, may sampung CPU ako, and I want to sell my ten CPUs, sa kung ilalagay na chassis yun? Sa entry-model o sa high-end?,” Ngan said. 

He added that companies like Intel, Nvidia, as well as RAM suppliers are prioritizing high-end servers for AI data centers for their chips, and because of this, prices are likely to keep rising. 

“What I know is that up to December it will not go down,” Ngan said.

This has proven to be a headache for companies and organizations looking to buy new laptops and desktops.

“Marami akong mga customer na tawag nang tawag: Bakit ganito? Kaka-canvas ko lang last week [pero] iba na presyo ngayon?”  

Ngan noted that server prices alone have gone up 300 percent in the last twelve months. Because of the skyrocketing prices of computers and other devices, many organizations have put off buying new PCs despite the typical 5-year cycle that companies go through in replacing aging tech.

Industry tracker IDC reported that PC shipments worldwide fell 4.9 percent annually in the second quarter, which was the first decline after nine consecutive quarters of growth. 

IDC said a persistent memory chip shortage drove the reversal, pushing vendors to pull inventory forward as far as possible.

Despite falling unit shipments, PC vendors, including Lenovo, are seeing record revenues as the jump in prices makes up for the drop in volume.

Ngan also expects unit shipments to recover as most organizations have no choice but to buy new computers because there are non-negotiable upgrades being driven by a 5-year post-pandemic refresh cycle and Microsoft end-of-service deadlines.