TrendForce said rising component costs are shifting the 2027 laptop-market risk
from supply limits to demand weakness. It currently forecasts global laptop
shipments will fall by low single digits in 2027; but if DRAM and CPU prices
remain elevated and brands pass costs to consumers, higher retail prices could
extend replacement cycles and push the annual shipment decline toward high
single digits. For a mainstream $900 MSRP model, CPU, DRAM and SSD together made
up about 68% of the laptop BOM in 3Q26, highlighting the growing pricing
influence of core components. Brands face a triage: raise retail prices and risk
demand erosion, absorb costs and compress gross margins, or cut storage/memory
specs and weaken competitiveness. TrendForce expects brands will struggle to
simultaneously preserve price, specs and margin, making the degree of cost
pass-through a key variable for 2027 demand.