How the "Memory Crunch" Starting in 2025 is Quietly Changing Your Phone and Computer
Imagine your brain suddenly only remembering today's events and forgetting everything from yesterday. The "memory" and "storage chips" in your phones and computers are their brains and notebooks. Since 2025, the world has been experiencing a severe "memory crunch." It's as if the factories producing these electronic brains and notebooks have encountered major troubles, leading to scarcity and high prices. This has tangibly affected the electronic products each of us wants to buy and is currently using.
How Did the Shortage Happen?
In short, there are three main reasons:
Overwhelming Demand: The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) requires massive "memory" for rapid processing, not just in the cloud but also in devices like phones, computers, and cars that now want to run AI locally. Cars are also becoming smarter, with every vehicle scrambling for chips.
Insufficient Production: Memory chip factories are among the world's most advanced and require enormous investments. Building a new factory takes several years. Manufacturers were cautious in previous years and did not aggressively expand production. Now, there's suddenly not enough supply.
Technology Transition Period: Older production technologies have reached their limits, while newer, more advanced technologies (such as EUV lithography) are not yet fully mature or widely deployed, creating a gap.
What Are the Specific Impacts on Our Devices?
The most direct impacts can be summarized in three points: more expensive, slower, and less appealing.
1. Phones: Adding Memory Becomes a "Price Hike" Strategy
In the past, when buying a phone, you might have debated between 128GB or 256GB of storage. Now, manufacturers prefer to focus on "RAM" (running memory).
Increased Lag in Mid-Range Phones: To control costs, many mid-range phones are only equipped with 8GB of RAM as standard. With apps becoming increasingly complex, especially those with AI features, 8GB is often insufficient, causing apps to reload when switching and making the phone feel sluggish.
Large Memory Reserved for High-End Models: Want a phone with 12GB or 16GB of RAM? Unfortunately, that's typically reserved for the most expensive "top-tier" or "Pro" models. Phone manufacturers use larger RAM as a primary way to differentiate pricing and increase profits. Simply put, if you want a smooth experience that lasts for years, you'll have to spend more money.
2. Computers and Laptops: Performance Gets "Locked"
Poor Experience with "Base Models": Many affordable laptops, to make their starting prices attractive (e.g., advertised as "starting at just $400!"), only come with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB hard drive. After 2025, this configuration feels tight even for daily office tasks, let alone handling photos, videos, or slightly larger files. Users often regret their purchase after buying.
Skyrocketing Upgrade Costs: Previously, you could buy a base model and later cheaply add a RAM stick or replace it with a larger hard drive. Now, manufacturers tend to solder the RAM directly onto the motherboard, preventing user upgrades. Even if upgrades are possible, the price of standalone RAM modules and hard drives has increased significantly compared to before.
3. Gaming Consoles and Digital Products: Either Price Hikes or "Downgrades"
Quiet Downgrades or Delays for Game Consoles: Consoles like PlayStation and Xbox are highly cost-sensitive. Rising memory prices directly eat into their profits. Manufacturers may be forced to reduce initial launch quantities or lower specifications in less noticeable areas (such as internal storage speed) to control costs.
New Products "Milking Iterations": The release of some highly anticipated new products, such as more powerful handheld gaming consoles or smarter AR glasses, may be delayed, or their features may be weaker than expected at launch because their designs had to account for expensive memory costs.
Deeper Impacts: Innovation Slows Down
Beyond the tangible products we see and use, some long-term effects are also occurring:
Software and Apps Hindered: Software developers know that most users' devices have limited memory, so they hesitate to develop flashy new features that consume too much memory, fearing they won't run smoothly on most phones. This indirectly slows down software innovation.
Smaller Manufacturers Struggle to Survive: During a memory shortage, large companies like Apple and Samsung have long-term contracts and strong bargaining power, allowing them priority access to supplies. However, small innovative companies find it difficult to secure stable chip supplies, potentially causing some creative products to fail.
Summary
The memory shortage starting in 2025 is like slamming the brakes on the entire consumer electronics industry. It hasn't reversed technological progress, but it has certainly slowed the pace of product advancement and made us pay more for the same performance.
As consumers, our most direct feeling is that the term "cost-performance ratio" has become rare. The budget threshold for obtaining a smooth, long-lasting, and up-to-date experience has been significantly raised. When this "memory crunch" will end depends on the construction of new factories and breakthroughs in new technologies. But for now, it has already reshaped our purchasing choices and digital lives.