Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) are planning to increase the prices of new PCs to stay profitable amid rising components costs.
“The component shortage has continued. One of the options we have is to [raise prices of] Acer’s new PCs to reflect the costs and protect our [margin] levels,” Acer chief executive Jason Chen (陳俊聖) yesterday told reporters ahead of the company’s annual supply chain meeting in Taipei.
The company said it would keep the prices of existing models unchanged for the time being.
Chen did not disclose the scale or range of price hikes for new PCs, saying that Acer would negotiate with companies in its supply chain over components prices.
Several key components, such as PC DRAM chips and high-definition twisted nematic LCD panels, have been in short supply since the third quarter of last year, industry sources said.
Memory module supplier Kingston Technology Corp last month attributed the global DRAM shortage mainly due to suppliers’ reallocation of capacity to higher-margin products, such as NAND flash, from standard chips.
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科) and Powertech Technology Inc (力成) last month forecast the shortage would continue throughout the first half of this year, with industry sources expecting prices of some DRAM products to increase by 10 percent next quarter after rising by as much as 40 percent this quarter.
Asustek spokesman Nick Wu (吳長榮) yesterday said the firm was also considering increasing prices to maintain its profitability.
In response to the shortage in components, the company has allocated components to higher-margin products, such as gaming PCs and two-in-one detachable notebook computers, while reducing them for conventional PCs, he said.
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