The Memory Shortage Isn't Just an Apple Story
I wrote about Apple's price hikes earlier this week. The reaction I heard from a few clients was some version of "well, I'm glad I run Windows machines, so this doesn't really touch me." I understand the instinct. It doesn't hold up.
The memory shortage driving Apple's price increases is an industry-wide problem, and depending on what you run, it might actually hit you harder than it hits Apple.
Why This Isn't an Apple Problem
The shortage comes down to memory chips, specifically DRAM and NAND flash, the components that go into every laptop, desktop, tablet, and phone made by every manufacturer. AI data centers are buying up an enormous share of global memory production to power the infrastructure behind generative AI tools, and that demand is not slowing down.
According to CNBC's reporting on the shortage, IDC analyst Nabila Popal described the situation as an "absolute existential crisis" for smaller manufacturers, since memory suppliers are prioritizing the large players and smaller companies "won't be able to get the memory because memory suppliers are only answering calls of the big players." GoPro has warned it might go out of business entirely after memory costs rose between 80 and 115 percent in a single quarter.
Apple has the size and the long-term supply contracts to weather this better than almost anyone. The companies that don't have that leverage are the ones you should actually be worried about.
Who's Actually Exposed
Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Acer have all confirmed price increases of 15 to 20 percent on their lineups, with HP disclosing that memory now accounts for roughly 35 percent of total PC build costs, up from 15 to 18 percent just one quarter earlier. That is according to the Wikipedia summary of the 2025 to present global memory supply shortage, which compiles HP's own Q1 2026 earnings disclosures. These are not small businesses making these adjustments. These are companies with enormous purchasing power, and even they are passing significant costs through.
Below that tier, it gets worse. Smaller and budget-focused manufacturers, the kind of brand you might find on a refurbished or value-tier business laptop, face a much rougher road. Memory suppliers are prioritizing their biggest, most reliable customers, which means smaller vendors are competing for whatever capacity is left over, often at worse pricing and with less supply certainty.
This Is Not a Short-Term Problem
If you're holding off on a hardware decision waiting for this to blow over, here's the timeline you're actually working with. Micron's CEO has said the company expects the shortage to persist through 2027, with supply only gradually improving in 2028. Most of Micron's DRAM production is already under long-term contract through 2030. Jefferies Equity Research projects memory prices could rise another 50 percent in the third quarter of 2026 alone, with an additional 30 to 40 percent increase by year's end.
Gartner forecasts that combined DRAM and SSD prices could surge by 130 percent compared to 2025 levels by the end of this year, which it expects to push overall PC prices up by roughly 17 percent. The firm also projects worldwide PC shipments could fall more than 10 percent in 2026 as a direct result.
That is not a window you wait out. That is a new floor for hardware pricing, likely for the next two to three years.
What This Means If You Run a Mixed Fleet
A lot of the small businesses I work with aren't all-Mac or all-Windows. They have a mix, sometimes by design, sometimes because of what was available when a machine needed replacing. If that describes your business, here is the honest picture: every brand in your fleet is exposed to this shortage. There is no platform you can switch to that dodges it. The constraint sits upstream of the brand name on the lid.
What does change is how exposed you are within that constraint. Larger, well-capitalized manufacturers with existing supply agreements, Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, are better positioned to maintain consistent quality and availability even as prices rise. Smaller and budget manufacturers are the ones more likely to face supply gaps, quality cuts, or business viability questions over the next year or two.
If you've been eyeing a budget-tier Windows machine specifically because it was cheap, that calculation deserves a second look. The thin margins that made those machines affordable are exactly what's getting squeezed hardest right now, and Gartner has projected that rising memory prices will make laptops under $500 financially unviable for manufacturers within two years.
What To Actually Do
If a hardware refresh is on your radar for this year, the consistent advice from analysts and manufacturers alike is to move sooner rather than later. Waiting does not currently have a payoff date attached to it. If your business depends on devices being reliable and supported for years, not just functional on day one, this is the moment to prioritize established manufacturers with real supply chain leverage over the cheapest option on the shelf.
This is also a good time to take a real inventory of your fleet rather than reacting brand by brand. A vCIO engagement is built exactly for this kind of planning: looking at what you have, what's aging out, what your actual budget runway looks like over the next two to three years, and making purchasing decisions based on that picture instead of headline panic.
If you're not sure whether your current machines are facing real risk or whether you're overthinking a normal refresh cycle, that's a conversation worth having before you commit to anything. Our IT consulting service covers exactly this kind of procurement strategy work.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Is the memory shortage going to get better soon?
A: No credible forecast points to relief before late 2027 at the earliest, with most analysts expecting 2028 before supply meaningfully improves. Micron has stated most of its production is already committed under long-term contracts through 2030. Planning around current prices as the new normal, rather than a temporary spike, is the safer assumption for budgeting purposes.
Q: Should I avoid budget or off-brand Windows laptops right now?
A: It's worth being cautious. Smaller manufacturers are facing the most severe supply pressure because memory suppliers prioritize their largest customers first. That can translate into inconsistent availability, quality cuts, or in worst cases, the manufacturer struggling to stay in business. Established brands with existing supply agreements are generally a safer bet during this period.
Q: Does this shortage affect desktops as much as laptops?
A: Yes. The shortage affects DRAM and NAND flash broadly, which means desktops, laptops, tablets, and even gaming consoles are all affected. Desktop builders and PC gaming companies have reported some of the steepest cost increases of any segment, since standalone memory kits have seen the most direct price exposure.
Q: If I already bought new machines this year, am I in the clear?
A: For the most part, yes. If your hardware is current and functioning, there's no reason to make a panic purchase. The advice to buy sooner rather than later applies to businesses with a refresh already planned or overdue, not to replacing equipment that's working fine.
Q: Why are AI data centers driving up the price of my office laptop?
A: AI infrastructure requires enormous amounts of high-bandwidth memory, and that memory is manufactured using the same wafer capacity as the conventional memory in everyday devices. As memory makers redirect production toward higher-margin AI components, less capacity remains for the DRAM and NAND used in laptops, phones, and PCs, which drives up cost and tightens supply across the board.
Every hardware brand is exposed to this shortage. The platform you choose matters less right now than the manufacturer's size and supply chain strength.
If you're not sure where your current fleet stands or what a smart refresh timeline looks like given all this, a vCIO engagement is the right place to map that out before you make a purchasing decision you can't easily undo.
Get in touch and we'll look at your setup together.