It's long been said that the insane rise in DRAM pricing would eventually affect common household electronics, and those predictions are starting to come true, likely sooner than most people imagine or would like to admit. The latest casualty is the market for ISP-provided broadband routers, set-top boxes (STBs), and gateways, which could see prices for the memory they require rise sevenfold.
Counterpoint researchers state that this steep climb should last at least through June, and is likely to continue due to the ongoing supply crisis. Whereas memory used to account for about 3% of the average bill of materials (BOM) for producing one of these pieces of equipment, that percentage has now ballooned to 20%, and it will have an outsized influence on the equipment's final price.
