Samsung’s co-CEO has been quite open in saying that the present global memory scarcity will soon be the reason behind the rising production and selling prices of consumer electronics, such as televisions and household appliances. The alarming announcement from the tech giant gives an impression that all the different sectors of the consumer electronics industry would feel the distortion in the supply chain. Such events might have an adverse effect on gamers and consumers who want to buy the best home entertainment devices.
So, here we go once more, right? Just when it seemed like the entire chip shortage business was going to disappear, Samsung dropped this bombshell. The company’s co-CEO practically stated, “everyone will be affected by the memory shortage.” He was not, however, referring only to graphics cards or PS5s, no. He indicated that televisions and home appliances would also be affected. So, your fridge and washer may become costlier due to RAM. What on earth is life like these days?
The tweet from Pirat_Nation account (which seems to be the source of this news) got a lot of reactions and the mood among the gamer and tech community is… doubtful. And a little bit angry. A big part of the comments are simply people pointing out that this is an extremely obvious reason for the price increase. @RealTriassic was very straightforward: “Sounds like another excuse to raise margins.” While @Email_Architect characterized it as “A tactic to increase price and margin.” Thus, the level of trust here is very low.
Nevertheless, the situation gets even hotter if one considers the comments about Smart TVs as it is a main contention point. A lot of comments such as on @BonusFact are practically calling for the return of “dumb” TVs. You know, just a screen that shows pictures from your console or Blu-ray player without all the built-in spying … uh, I mean, ‘smart’ software. @BonusFact said they would “rather pay $350 for a dumb 4k TV than $550 for a ‘smart’ spy machine TV that forces upscales to 8k.” And @one_dunkirk backed that up with “Stop making all TVs ‘smart’ surveillance devices and they will only need a fraction of the RAM.”
To tell the truth, this is a pretty valid argument, isn’t it? @knopfsemmelchen made a witty remark that “Samsung TVs, even the pricey ones, have practically no memory at all and even the budget smartphones are better in terms of hardware.” So if the memory in these devices is already very limited and not very good either, then how much could the shortage really influence the price? @lolbob27 raised the same question, “That can’t be more than a few dollars on a 1000 dollar tv.” So is it a genuine crisis or merely a convenient narrative? The comments section seems to heavily favor the latter.
And, of course, the gamer brain immediately thinks of the consoles. @Couchoholic was like, “I better grab new Consol before they’ll be impossible to buy.” Which, ugh, don’t remind us of the dark times. Just the one thought of another scarcity wave of hardware for PlayStation and Xbox is enough to give anyone PTSD. @Pray4TheBatman user went on to forecast the doom, saying it’ll affect “Phones, medical equipment, appliances, vehicles, factories. Practically anything electronic today will be affected.” So, it is a big deal.
Some replies were nothing but pure, beautiful chaos. @Atriox_ spotted the word “fallout” and immediately asked, “Fallout? Like Fallout New Vegas?” which, mood. And @AchatesMenou shared a humorous personal fail: “>bought 2tb m2 ssd 2 months ago >but didn’t buy 64gb of ram >mfw” We share your agony, my friend. We all have that one component that we regret not having purchased.
The general sentiment among the community is one of profound skepticism towards the big tech companies. Phrases like “artificially manufactured” and “designed shortages” were used quite frequently. @oldmatejay labeled them as “Artificially manufactured tech scares,” while @nosmh commented “Designed ‘shortages’ for profit taking.” It is obvious that after the last few years of supply chain chaos, players and consumers have very little patience left for what they perceive as corporate opportunism.
Thus, the crucial question remains what it all means for us, the ones who simply want to enjoy games on a good monitor without requiring a second mortgage? In the immediate future, it most probably means a delay in that big TV upgrade unless a great deal is found. This translates to being more skeptical regarding price increases on monitors, fridges, or any other electronic gadget. Furthermore, it implies that the community’s watchdog mentality has never been so keen – they will struggle to have the official narrative accepted.
