The high RAM prices have caught a handheld manufacturer off guard. Ayaneo suspends pre-orders because the prices for RAM and storage have risen too sharply.
The Chinese manufacturer Ayaneo is considered a well-known maker of handheld consoles among handheld fans.
With the Ayaneo Next 2, a new model was introduced a few weeks ago, for which they wanted to charge around 2,000 euros for the base version. Typically, Ayaneo funds itself through crowdfunding and raises money from interested customers for its devices.
Now, the manufacturer has explained in an update that it is suspending pre-orders and will not accept any more. The increased prices of RAM and storage have become “unsustainable” for the manufacturer.
Ayaneo ends pre-orders for its new handheld because prices are no longer bearable
What is the problem? Ayaneo itself explained that the prices for RAM and storage had already risen sharply at the time of the handheld’s announcement. Nevertheless, they were surprised that the prices had skyrocketed so quickly and so severely. The prices have not reached a peak but have increased further. Ayaneo explained on the platform Indiegogo.com:
Even before the market launch of the NEXT 2, memory prices had been rising for several months. At that time, we assumed that the price would approach its peak. Even if this meant that we would make little or no profit – or even a slight loss – we still decided to push ahead with the market launch. What we did not expect, however, was that memory prices would not only continue to rise but would actually rise even more rapidly.
The base version has 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD, and the better model even has 64 GB of RAM. And these are amounts of RAM that are currently hardly affordable, when you look at the current prices in our RAM price ticker on MeinMMO.
What happens next? Ayaneo writes that they want to produce and deliver the already reserved models in any case. They also noted that pre-orders are only “temporarily suspended” and that a resumption of sales could be considered if “memory prices return to a more reasonable level in the future”.
Whether this will really happen in the future is another question. Because currently, prices for RAM and storage continue to rise sharply. There is no end in sight for the rising prices, which could take several months or even years. Market researchers have stated that one should not rely on prices dropping again soon: RAM is currently incredibly expensive, market researchers are certain: this will stay that way for a while
