According to a latest report released by IT market research firm Gartner, PC shipments in 2026 are expected to fall 10.4 percent from a year earlier due to a surge in DRAM prices and supply shortages. That is a bigger drop than in the smartphone market. The budget PC market is expected to take a larger hit.

Ranjit Atwal (란짓 아트왈), a senior research analyst at Gartner, said, "The budget PC market below $500 will virtually disappear by 2028."

Gartner said manufacturers have kept consumer prices steady while absorbing rising component costs. It said that is no longer sustainable. Companies will have to pass the higher costs on to consumers, and models priced from $500 to $1,000 are expected to be hit the hardest.

Gartner forecast that as more consumers delay PC purchases, the average PC usage period will rise 20 percent by the end of this year. It said that as existing DRAM inventories are depleted quickly, the impact of higher memory prices will become more pronounced from the second quarter of this year.

Gartner forecast that manufacturers will choose to accept lower sales volumes to maintain profitability. From a consumer perspective, a practical alternative is to delay purchases until the memory supply shortage eases. The related industry believes it could take more than 1 year for supply to normalise.