Peace President's Iran war piles more pain on already battered PC market
- Reference: 1775741889
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/04/09/middle_east_madness_to_hike/
- Source link:
This is the bad news from market watcher IDC, which says that the remainder of the year will see further declines in PC shipments as system prices continue to go up.
PCs and phones to get more boring and expensive in 2026 thanks to memory drought [1]READ MORE
President Trump destablized the PC industry in 2025 through ever-shifting tariffs on imported goods, and now the conflict in the Middle East is adding extra uncertainty and more unnecessary cost, according to IDC.
"The Middle East conflict has injected a fresh layer of volatility into a fragile computing devices market, straining global logistics through a double-edged sword of rising energy costs and freight spikes," said IDC Devices senior research analyst Isaac Ngatia.
"On one hand, sea corridors continue to face ongoing disruption, especially ones connecting Asia and EMEA, on the other, pivoting to air freight has become more expensive. Ultimately, these premiums are trickling down the value chain, intensifying the pricing pressure of PCs on the end-users."
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Before the Peace President's latest foreign adventure kicked off, analysts had already noted that [3]prices for some types of memory have doubled or quadrupled since last year , and forecast that DRAM and NAND would see a further 130 percent rise by the end of 2026.
[4]
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As The Register reported previously, the impact of this means that budget systems are likely to disappear, because memory already makes up a larger proportion of the overall bill of materials, so the builders simply cannot absorb the increase in memory prices for entry-level PCs, especially those [6]below about $500 .
In the meantime, the expected memory price hikes led to a rise in shipments during the first quarter of this year, as resellers, corporate buyers and anyone who can afford it brings forward any potential purchases before costs peak.
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This saw shipments up 2.5 percent to 65.6 million units compared with the same period in 2025, but the trend is expected to be downwards for the rest of this year as the various constraints take effect.
Omdia reports much the same, putting the Q1 rise in shipments at 3 percent to 64.8 million units, supported by "vendors and channel partners pulling orders forward ahead of a widely anticipated increase in component costs."
"With supply-chain pressures still building, Q1's modest growth is likely to mark the high point for the year," said principal analyst Ben Yeh.
[8]Sorry, kids. Memory crunch threatens to kneecap Chromebook shipments
[9]US PC shipments to fall 13% as memory and storage crunch hits budget systems
[10]Microsoft: Removing some Copilots will improve Windows 11
[11]Linux PC vendor System76 tries to talk Colorado down over OS age checks
[12]Lenovo shows off snap-together laptop with removable keyboard, screen, and ports
"Memory and storage costs are expected to rise further and more steeply than previously assumed from Q2, squeezing PC vendor gross margins and forcing them to pass costs through to channel partners and end-customers," he warned.
"CPU prices are a smaller but compounding pressure, with Intel and AMD projecting increases of 10 to 25 percent into Q2," Yeh added.
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Canalys (now Omdia) research manager Kieren Jessop told The Register that the Iran war has not so far had a direct impact on the industry's ability to deliver shipments.
"However, factors like increased freight and insurance costs may further squeeze margins at a time where they are already under significant pressure from massive cost increases for memory and storage," he said.
"From an end-customer perspective, it may have an indirect impact, particularly for consumers. As we saw with the post-Ukraine inflation spike, consumers increasingly make purchase decisions across categories, relegating discretionary tech spend below other categories. We expect this may have an impact on consumer PC shipments as energy prices rise due to the conflict."
Those hoping for a period of stability to settle the supply chains will not draw much comfort from the US president's latest words.
"Our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest," he posted on [14]Truth Social . ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/27/memory_drought_pcs_phones_suck/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2adfNIgvskTOv3H9StAPDEQAAAIg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/memory_price_hikes/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44adfNIgvskTOv3H9StAPDEQAAAIg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33adfNIgvskTOv3H9StAPDEQAAAIg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/memory_price_hikes/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44adfNIgvskTOv3H9StAPDEQAAAIg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/10/memory_chromebooks_pcs/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/30/omdia_pc_shipments/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/23/windows_quality_commitment/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/10/foss_age_verification_2/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/01/lenovo_shows_off_modular_laptop/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33adfNIgvskTOv3H9StAPDEQAAAIg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116372694697146221
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
25th Amendment Time
Demented Donald spent the weekend talking with his staff about how Japan changed after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Trump is a clear and present danger to the whole world and needs to be removed from office.
What will it take for this spineless Congress to act? Trump actually dropping a nuke?
How many more times will White House staff succeed in talking this demented madman out of using nuclear weapons?
Re: 25th Amendment Time
Would Vance be an improvement?
Re: 25th Amendment Time
At least he's more rational, won't drop nukes out of confusion and I'm pretty sure he knows today what he said yesterday.
That's already a big improvement over the current state of affairs, even if he might be more dangerous to politics and democracy at home.
Re: 25th Amendment Time
Dementia and nuclear codes don't mix.
Whatever partisan/policy issues people might have with Vance.....we'll just have to live through that.
The chances of living through that go up when the nuclear codes aren't in the suit pocket of a dementia patient.
Re: 25th Amendment Time
Do we know for sure he has not yet ordered nuclear strikes on Iran which were refused to be executed in the military command chain somewhere below Hegseth?
Re: 25th Amendment Time
Hegseth Kegsbreath
FTFY
Re: 25th Amendment Time
A single B-2 took off from Whiteman AFB (Missouri, USA) on Tuesday.
Keep in mind, the US already has B-2s deployed at Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean).
Why one plane? Why was it recalled mere hours from Trump's deadline to kill a civilization? What was on that plane? Why didn't the USAF deploy one which was much closer?
Anyone who is not worried is not paying attention.
Those who are paying attention are desperately trying to drown their dispair in barrels of whisky.
This situation demonstrates the limits of democracy. What recourse do you have when a demented bonespur wreaks havoc while Congress just sits by and does nothing ?
Checks and balances ? They're not working right now. Who is the responsible for that ?
Every single elected official in Congress.
I wonder if anyone suffering financial losses will get together with a class action in a jurisdiction outside the US. Perhaps with a distraint on a few golf courses.
I'd prefer exfiltrating him to Den Haag, like the U.S. did with Maduro.
After all, the U.S. is leading by example, so, abducting and even killing foreign leaders is now fair game, ... no?
@Doctor Syntax - Jurisdiction outside of the US ?
Forget about it!
The only way left is what Iran, China, Russia and North Korea are doing, mass production of dirt cheap drones, missiles and also have some nuclear weapons as a last deterrent.
It's really sad that we've come to this.
Dell entry level R250 server in 2023 was £1,114, the replacement R260 in Dec 25 was £1,781 and today £3,600
Voyna
America Amerikanski oblasts's war with Iran the West.
Some corrections.
So far this looks like Krasnov is doing exactly what Iranian regime and Russia wants. Krasnov has killed young Aya-toll-ah's nuisance of old man and nagging wife. Russia is getting sanctions lifted. Weapons are diverted from Ukraine. Epstein files are not talked about anymore. Republicans and Democrats get to play the stock market. Bibi wanked himself unconscious over the killing spree and safety from prosecution. It's all working well.
Just the Western "leaders" are looking like caught with pants down yearning for the good old days of giving contracts to usual suspects and enjoying the managed decline.
You think this is bad
Just wait till China moves on Taiwan
And America and Israel are making that all the more likely, as they have demonstrated that they don't care about International Law, Genocide etc, so why should they expect China to play fair