In 2026, the kit you use to do your creative job has probably never been more important. Whether you're a photographer editing 45MP raw files, a film-maker scrubbing through 4K footage or a graphic designer running several Creative Cloud apps at once, it all depends on one unglamorous, typically unseen, but essential component. RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory.
Unfortunately that component – often referred to simply as 'memory' – is at the centre of a global supply squeeze that's pushing up the price of laptops, phones, tablets, gaming consoles… basically anything with a computer chip in.
Worse still, this is not just a temporary blip, but a problem that may last till the end of the decade. Read on, and I'll explain what's happening, in words you don't have to be technical to understand.
A price shock no-one can avoid
Usually the nitty-gritty of what goes on in global computer manufacturing isn't something that most of us need to care about. But right now, it's hitting us squarely in the pocket.
Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Samsung and others have all raised prices in the last few months, some by hundreds of pounds, without changing a single thing about the devices themselves. In fact, sometimes they're even bringing out lower-powered devices at a higher cost.
As a 56-year-old man who's been buying computers since the earliest home devices hit the shops in the early 1980s, that feels little short of historic. Because ever since those heady days, society has become accustomed to computers getting both faster and cheaper, year on year. Yet that's now going into reverse, for the first time in modern memory.
What is RAM?
Before I explore why, let's start at first principles: what exactly is RAM, and what's for?
Importantly, RAM is not the same as storage. Storage (on an internal or external hard drive) is the memory where your files live long-term. RAM, in contrast, is the memory your computer clears to actually work on something in the moment.
That might be the photo you're retouching, the video timeline you're scrubbing through, the dozen browser tabs and Creative Cloud apps you've got open at once. The bigger the RAM, the more you can work something on smoothly, without everything grinding to a halt.
Every laptop, phone and tablet has RAM built in, and it's one of the most expensive parts to make. Unfortunately, it's now in desperately short supply.
Why is RAM scarce?
So why is it in short supply? In a word: AI.
The huge data centres being built to run AI services like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude need enormous amounts of RAM to function. And the handful of companies that make RAM – such as Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron – have found it far more profitable to sell to the AI giants than to laptop, tablet and phone makers.
Some companies have even gone further, and shifted their factories to produce a specialised, higher-value type of memory built specifically for AI servers, which further eats into the supply of ordinary memory chips used in laptops and phones. Indeed, Micron has stopped selling directly to consumers at all, closing down a well-known upgrade brand to focus entirely on its new AI customers.
How much are prices rising?
RAM prices aren't going up a little. They're going up a lot. Analysts are forecasting memory price rises of around 40 to 50% in the third quarter of 2026 alone, with further increases expected into next year. Some laptop makers say memory now makes up more than a third of what it costs to build a PC, roughly double the share it was a year ago.
Consumers are already seeing the knock-on effects. Apple's raised MacBook and iPad prices by between $100 and $500 in recent months. Microsoft has done similarly with its Surface and Xbox ranges, and even discontinued its highest-memory Xbox configuration.
Sony has raised the price of the PlayStation 5 and may delay its successor. Similarly, budget phone makers have cancelled or scaled back planned models – because they can't build them at a price anyone would pay.
What's new this time?
Of course, tech has often had supply issues and price shocks before – most recently during the pandemic years. But again, I stress: this time it's different.
Almost the entire history of consumer computing has been built on components getting more powerful and cheaper, year after year, generation after generation. While this progress upwards might have occasionally have been bumpy rather than straight, the basic pattern continued. Now, though, it's reversed, and analysts don't expect a quick fix.
Building a new memory factory takes two to three years and billions of dollars. And most of the new capacity being built now won't ship in meaningful volumes until 2027 or 2028 at the earliest. Some industry figures think prices won't properly settle until 2030.
Even when supply does catch up, several analysts doubt prices will fall all the way back to where they started. Because once buyers get used to paying more, there's little commercial pressure on manufacturers to bring costs back down.
What it means for creatives
So what does this mean for working creatives? Well, in short, it means the party's over. If you're used to upgrading your laptop, phone, tablet or gaming console every couple of years, and getting something much more powerful, at a similar or lower price, then… well, I'm sorry. That's no longer going to happen.
Expect higher-memory laptops and desktops – the kind serious photo and video work needs – to see the steepest rises. Expect entry-level and budget devices to shrink in number or drop back to lower memory specifications, as manufacturers try to hold their prices down by giving you less. And once you've bought a device, if its memory is soldered in rather than upgradeable (increasingly common on slim laptops and all phones and tablets), you'll be stuck with whatever you chose on day one.
If none of that means much to you, then let me put it in simpler terms. You know how, thanks to rampant food inflation around the world, that chocolate bar you used to love is now smaller, much more expensive and contains less actual chocolate (aka 'shrinkflation')? Well that, but for tech.
So how should creatives respond? In the second article in this series, I'll walk through practical, sensible strategies for getting the kit you need without paying over the odds, from buying refurbished to being honest with yourself about what each job actually requires.
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