PC shipments up for first quarter thanks to AI, say analysts

That AI PC pixie dust doesn't seem to be working its magic just yet as shipments were up for the first quarter of this year, but only by a few percent. But rising prices mean those who do buy will likely pay more to refresh their kit. Latest analyst estimates concur that sales of PC hardware grew in 1Q24, but not by how much. …

[Snowy]

WoW

This expected demand is already pushing up the price of DRAM, and SSD prices could jump 50 percent this year, according to some estimates.

Not that long ago prices where going to fall by quite a bit. That did not last long or did it even happen much at all?

[DS999]

Re: WoW

It did happen, prices are much lower than they were a couple years ago. But as usual it caused DRAM and NAND OEMs to pull back on production so there is less of a surplus, and the earthquake in Taiwan is adding a convenient excuse.

They'll milk this tiny increase for all its worth and claim it is the start of a big trend, but we all know it won't be. The public has got wise to the PC industry trying to sell them the next "must have" upgrade every few years, I doubt we will see a lot of people buying PCs who weren't already going to be in the market because their old one is well...old.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: WoW

"I doubt we will see a lot of people buying PCs who weren't already going to be in the market because their old one is well...old"

It's really bulging electrolytics that sell PCs, not complicated analytics.

[Anonymous Coward]

expected demand is already pushing up the price of DRAM

So hopefully, once the pointlessness of the new-fangled "AI PC" becomes obvious, later in the year we can expect to see a price crash and I can pimp out my box with more RAM for good old fashioned VMs banging away at "you mean they still do that?" databases and similar olde worlde tasks.

[43300]

Re: expected demand is already pushing up the price of DRAM

An 'AI PC' is nothing more than a bog-standard PC using the latest standard components!

[druck]

Re: expected demand is already pushing up the price of DRAM

No, it will be wasting a lot of silicon on FP8 performance, which is bugger all use for anything else. But at least it will have enough memory to last you through a few OS upgrades.