Pricing power in CE 2026: RAM prices more than doubled, shoppers bought less memory

Consumer electronics prices rose about 7% over the past 12 months. Most of that increase sits in a handful of categories built on memory and storage. RAM prices more than doubled, and shoppers responded by paying more for smaller capacities.

Those were the key themes from our latest consumer electronics webinar, where Alek Sanchez, Senior Insights Associate, and Noah Eiseman, Insights Analyst, walked through where cost pressure is concentrated, which categories still have pricing power, and how a phone purchase pulls accessory spend along with it.

All figures cover U.S. brick-and-mortar and online sales from September 2025 to August 2026 unless noted.

Watch the full replay here.

Key takeaways:

• Memory-exposed categories carry most of the price pressure. Their ASPs rose 19.7% while units fell 11.3%. Across the rest of electronics, ASPs slipped 0.6% and units grew 2.1%.
• RAM shoppers are paying more for less. RAM ASPs rose 128.8% and units fell 59.4%. Products priced at $200 or more grew from 13.7% to 63.6% of RAM sales, while 32GB and smaller kits gained share.
• Smartphone buyers paid more and kept buying. Smartphone ASPs rose 13.4% and units grew 7.5%.
• Premium price bands are gaining share across the phone ecosystem. Apple’s largest mix gain came in the $1,100–$1,299 tier and Samsung’s in the $1,300+ tier. Wireless in-ear, cellphone protection, and portable chargers gained most in the $50–$99 band.
• Mid-price laptops drive the category’s growth. The $300–$899 band grew 17.8% and gained 3.6 points of share, led by Apple’s MacBook Neo.
• Amazon captures most accessory spend after the phone sale. It takes 49.5% to 86.4% of each phone cohort’s follow-on accessory spend.

Tracing CE price increases back to memory

Computer components led price growth at 21.9%, followed by consoles at 18.6%, storage at 14.6%, and cellphones at 13.0%.

“When we talk about pricing increases within the consumer electronics sphere, it’s not a broad-based trend that equally affects all categories. It has targeted effects.” — Alek Sanchez

When memory gets more expensive, so do the computers, consoles, and tablets built around it. Within memory-exposed categories, storage and memory took the hardest hit, with ASPs up 27.2% and units down 21.6%.

Smartphones moved the other way. Alek credited annual launches and mix, plus need. Shoppers treat a phone as essential and a tablet or PC upgrade as optional.

Comparing only products sold in both periods, memory-exposed ASPs at Amazon rose 10.9% while matched units fell 26.3%. ASPs fell at Best Buy and Walmart, and Sam’s Club grew both price and units.

Paying more for less RAM

Storage and memory is a $3.1 billion category. Its growth peaked near 10% in late 2025, then flattened by August as memory shortages and import costs hit. Alek also pointed to AI data centers, which pull manufacturing capacity away from consumer RAM.

RAM ASPs rose 128.8% and units fell 59.4%, while memory cards, hard drives, and SSDs each rose more than 40% in price. By retailer, RAM ASPs rose 181% at Best Buy and 170% at Amazon. Walmart, with a more value-led assortment, held ASP growth to 5% and grew units.

Shoppers’ spend moved up the price ladder. Products priced at $200 or more grew from 13.7% to 63.6% of RAM sales, while the $50–$100 tier fell from 35.8% to 9.3%. Capacity moved the other way. 32GB kits rose from 50.4% to 57.5% of sales, and 64GB fell from 22.2% to 13.3%.

“Consumers are spending more on RAM, moving upwards on price. We’re noticing a shift up in price and a bit of a downwards momentum in capacity.” — Alek Sanchez

Value brands benefited. A-Tech gained nearly 4 points of dollar share and gained unit share too. Crucial’s 1.3-point dollar gain came with lower unit share. Corsair, a premium legacy name, lost 5.0 points of dollar share and 7.0 points of unit share.

Keeping laptop prices flat with mid-price models

Laptops use a lot of memory, yet laptop prices stayed roughly flat. Laptops priced at $1,200 and up still generate $8.7 billion in sales, but they declined 2.1% and lost 3.2 points of share.

Shoppers bought into the middle instead. The $300–$899 band grew 17.8% and reached 33.8% of laptop sales. Apple drove most of that gain with the MacBook Neo launch and steady discounting, which lowered Apple’s mid-price ASP. HP, Dell, Asus, and Lenovo showed pockets of pricing strength in the same band. For more on the season, see our back-to-school laptop report.

“It’s important to further decompose what’s happening at a subcategory level because there are different brand, retailer, and product launch dynamics that play a role in how prices are moving.” — Noah Eiseman

Spending up across the phone ecosystem

Cellphones and accessories make up a market of more than $40 billion. Accessories are the larger piece at $23.2 billion, up 3.1%. Cellphones reached $16.9 billion and grew 21.7%, with both units and ASPs rising.

Shoppers are buying phones in higher price bands. Apple’s largest mix gain came in the $1,100–$1,299 tier, and Samsung’s came in the $1,300+ tier. Google gained most at $1,100–$1,299.

“This category is facing pricing pressures, but we’re seeing consumers pick up that price and drive the category forward in higher price points.” — Noah Eiseman

Accessory buyers are trading up too. Wireless in-ear headphones, cellphone protection, and portable chargers and power banks all saw their strongest mix gains in the $50–$99 band.

AI marketing is part of the premium. Products that use AI terms in their descriptions now make up about 4.0% of cellphone sales and 10.5% of wireless in-ear sales, up sharply since 2022. Wireless in-ear is now the largest AI-marketed accessory subcategory.

Following phone launches into accessories

Phone makers are shaping accessory demand. Accessory listings naming the iPhone 17 spiked right after its September 2025 launch, and Galaxy S26 Ultra mentions rose around its March 2026 launch. Hardware choices last longer. When Apple moved the iPhone 15 to USB-C in September 2023, USB-C cables jumped from 32.1% to 41.3% of cable sales in one month. They now hold 67.5%.

“There’s a real follow-on and trickle-down effect from what cell phone producers are doing and how this impacts the accessory market.” — Noah Eiseman

Capturing accessory spend after the phone sale

Noah split phone buyers into Apple, Samsung, Google, and value cohorts, then tracked what each bought at checkout and over the next six months.

Cases are the top in-basket accessory for every cohort. They attach to 14.8% of iPhone orders, 22.4% of Samsung orders, and 24.4% of Google orders. Apple buyers spend the most at checkout, at $53.93 in accessories among attached buyers. Best Buy has the highest iPhone attach rate at 29.1%.

Follow-on accessory value exceeds in-basket value for every cohort. Amazon captures 49.5% of Apple buyers’ follow-on accessory spend, 67.9% of Samsung’s, and 86.4% of Google’s. Google buyers spend the most afterward, at $107.93, and return fastest, about 35 days after the phone purchase. Value buyers wait the longest, at nearly 54 days.

Accessory brands should plan campaigns past launch week, with compatibility copy, reviews, and bundles built for Amazon. Noah’s advice for retailers came in the Q&A.

“Customers are going online for these follow-on purchases and, for omnichannel retailers to compete, they need to beef up their online segment.” — Noah Eiseman

Separating real price changes from mix

An attendee asked how much ASP growth came from higher prices versus shoppers buying different products. Alek said the team compared like-for-like products and removed new launches with no prior-year match.

Much of the analysis was built with YipitData’s Insight Agent, which queries the same 12M+ consumer transaction panel our analysts use.

Reading pricing power by category, retailer, and brand

Pricing power in consumer electronics depends on the category, the retailer, and the brand. Memory-exposed categories are passing costs through and losing units. Smartphone brands are raising prices and holding demand. Accessory spend follows the phone, mostly to Amazon.

Want to see where your category, retailer, or brand sits on that map? Book a demo with YipitData.

To learn more about how YipitData tracks the category, visit our consumer electronics page.