Will Laptops Share the Fate of PS5 and RTX 3000? Experts Predict Shortages

Component availability issues related to various industry and global events may result in laptop market shortages and higher laptop prices.

IN A NUTSHELL:

Shortages of components - including LCDs - could affect the availability and, consequently, the price of laptops;
It is uncertain at this time whether these predictions will be confirmed, and manufacturers are taking steps to mitigate the situation if problems do arise.

As you may know, buying certain PC components (and 9th-gen consoles, too) has been a challenge lately due to shortages in the semiconductor market. DigiTimes reports, citing industry sources, that a similar situation may arise with laptops. This means that prices of such devices may rise (a similar situation may be observed in the case of monitors for desktop PCs).

The biggest problem may be the lower production of LCD screens caused by the recent earthquakes in Taiwan and power cuts in Japan. The situation is not helped by the fact that due to the pandemic the demand for this type of hardware is much higher than normal (for example, Lenovo reports that it currently has only 1/3 of the number of laptops in stock that it had at similar times in previous years). Finally, not without significance are also shortages of other components and the growing interest in laptops by cryptominers, who find it increasingly difficult to obtain desktop GPUs.

It's worth noting that the predictions of DigiTimes will not necessarily become true - in preparation for future supply problems, laptop manufacturers are trying to increase their production capacities and perhaps the situation will stabilize before the reduced supply of LCD screens noticeably affects the market.