Citing “a significant increase in memory and storage component costs,” Amazon has raised the prices of Echo, Kindle, Fire TV and Eero by up to 60 percent, first reported by Fortune and several industry media.
The cheapest products in the Amazon catalog are those hit the hardest: theEcho Dot went from $49.99 to $79.99. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max rose more than 40 percent, to $84.99, while the Kindle basic now costs $149.99, nearly 37 percent more.
Amazon’s statement
In a statement to The Verge, Kristy Schmidt, senior communications manager of Amazon’s Devices & Services division, said: “The consumer electronics industry is facing a significant increase in memory and storage component costs. After absorbing these increases while we can, we recently adjusted pricing across all of our product lines. Our approach has always been to offer great products at affordable prices, and that commitment has not changed.”
Other products affected and others not affected by the price increases
L’Echo Dot MaxAmazon’s flagship smart speaker launched last year, now costs $119.99, up from $99.99 before. Apple raised the price of its HomePod Mini, a comparable product, from $99.99 to $129 this summer, also due to rising costs. The Google Home Speaker remains at $99.99 for now.
Amazon hardware products apparently not affected by the increases include the Ring line of cameras and video intercoms and theEcho Studiothe high-end smart speaker for $219.99.
Not just Amazon: the memory crisis affects the entire sector
The Amazon case is part of a broader crisis in memory and storage components, exacerbated by data center demand for artificial intelligence. Apple also had to raise the prices of iPad, MacBook, HomePod and Apple TV, after then-CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal that the increases were now “inevitable”, calling the memory crisis “a hundred-year flood” and stating that he had never seen, in over 40 years of his career, such a rapid and consistent increase in component prices.