Do you know why Laptop prices have seen a surge with the COVID-19 Pandemic?
The living and working styles have changed a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not just the lockdowns have disrupted our normal lives, but the way we carry our daily professional activities has also seen a noticeable change. Just if we talk about the business sector, then conferences, meetings, seminars, and training sessions all have been shifted to webinars, online meetings, e-learning, and virtual sessions. “Work and study from home” is a common practice seen all around the world.
All such changes have increased our reliance on digital devices, especially smartphones and laptops. But unlike smartphones, there is a significant laptop price increase seen in the past months. Not just in one country or city, the price surge is witnessed all around the world. So, what has caused this prominent and unbearable increase in laptop prices? In this article, we will shed light on this matter and narrate all the major reasons behind why laptop prices going up significantly.
Top 4 Reasons of Laptop Price Increase
There are many factors that are triggering laptop prices, but the following are the four prominent reasons:
- High Demand due to Online Education
With COVID-19, the educational institutions had to shift the learning culture from on-campus to a home-based online studying environment. The regular face-to-face classes are now being conducted online by schools, colleges, universities, and all other educational institutes. Due to that, millions of students had to buy digital devices to join online classes. Laptops are considered the fundamental device for online studying, so the laptops demand from the educational sector increased drastically with the rise of COVID-19. Other than that, as the new laptops are quite expensive, most students preferred purchasing reconditioned laptops to meet their requirements. This also increased the demand and cost of reconditioned laptops greatly.
- Increased Demand due to Work From Home
The business sector is the one that is greatly hit by COVID-19. Millions of businesses are shut down, while the ones still running are having different approaches to work. With restrictions in the movement and business operations, work from home is being promoted everywhere. Regular team meetings are now conducted with online chatting platforms, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, etc. This has also played a major role in triggering the demand for laptops and increasing the price.
- Mismatch in Demand and Supply of Laptops
There is a spike in demand for laptops but the available stock in markets is limited, which has led to a shortage of laptops, and resultantly the prices of laptops have hiked. Increased demand and restricted shipments across the globe have resulted in the scarcity of laptops and other technological tools which only have some selective manufacturers in the world.
On the other hand, reconditioned desktop PCs present as alternatives to laptops. They could provide a similar utility to users on top of being upgradeable as well. But buyers are not fancying PCs. Laptops are being preferred over PCs due to mobility and connectivity. This has led to a shortage of laptops and unprecedented demand for new and refurbished laptops.
Besides that, the high demand for these devices also caused a shortage of various spare parts and accessories in the market, such as microphones, webcams, printers, speakers, and scanners, triggering their prices as well.
- Limited Cargos and High Logistics Cost during COVID-19
Due to COVID-19, the global economy has changed a lot. The cargo services got badly disrupted during the start of the pandemic, and still, things are not exactly back to normal. Many under-developed countries that do not have manufacturing unit facilities for laptops and gadgets have to import all the laptops from other countries. Due to worse cargo situations, the shipments of new and reconditioned laptops had been disrupted for months by several major exporters in different countries. Eventually, this had put pressure on the retail suppliers and caused the laptop price to increase significantly. Besides that, the high logistics cost associated with the cargo during the COVID-19 pandemic also played some role in the price surge.
Final Thoughts
The above reasons are some of the major factors behind the laptop prices going up. It is observed that laptop prices have been increased by 20-40% in the past few months. But the main question right now is when laptop price will decrease? Considering the world adjusting with COVID-19 and better approaches to carrying out business activities while following essential COVID-19 SOPs, there are high chances that sooner the price surge of laptops will start decreasing.
