7/25/2026 at 11:36:05 PM
DRAM shortages are already causing (not projectioning to cause) visible demand destruction in many categories.Smartphone shipments are down 11% YoY Q2 2026. Full year projected drop of 14%.
Consumer PCs are down around 5%. Only the trend bucked originally by the new Mac neo by Apple.
There was news that the price hikes killed Steamdeck sales 82%! [0].
The Apple product price hikes from a month ago were more brutal than I could have imagined. Especially on stuff like the iPads with like 30% hikes. I can picture that it would have caused some serious demand destruction even given the Apple ecosystem lock in amoung cost conscious buyers.
[0] https://www.techradar.com/gaming/steam-deck/new-estimate-sug...
by kingstnap
7/26/2026 at 2:17:49 AM
The Steam Deck numbers are shocking but I wonder about the methodology of those.Valve was sold out of the Steam Deck for a long time, so I’d expect their sales to have been very low.
They also talked about difficulty sourcing parts for the Steam Machine at any price.
I definitely subscribe to the idea that some device categories really do turn from an impulse buy thing into making zero sense for most people at some price. Stuff like a steam deck or an iPad are going to be the most sensitive to that.
I own an iPad that is literally useless to me outside of reading/printing recipes in the kitchen or watching videos on. The device can certainly do more than that but it’s just not what the form factor makes sense for in my life.
I paid something like $300-400 for a refurbished previous model iPad Air.
If that device turned out completely useless that wasn’t a big loss.
Same deal with the Steam Deck: at $350 it’s worth taking a chance on even if it ends up collecting dust.
by Grombobulous
7/26/2026 at 3:14:38 AM
Consumer demand is much more price-sensitive than enterprise demand, not least because the latter can issue bonds to pay for RAM and GPUs. Prices for consumers are going up everywhere: food, gas, insurance, you name it.Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch have a competitor that's the elephant in the room: Chinese Android handhelds that run rings around them on price and play everything from NES to Switch games locally as well as PS5/Steam via remote link.
by rchaud
7/26/2026 at 4:48:50 PM
Funny coincidence you mention it, I am an owner of one of those Chinese handhelds.I owned an original Steam Deck and as soon as the OLED model was announced I decided to sell my model with the intention of re-buying the OLED one. Instead, I ended up with an AYN Odin 2, which I then sold in favor of the Odin 2 Portal when that arrived...which ended up feeling like the ideal device for the kinds of games I want to play.
The Steam Deck was a tad too bulky for my liking all along, but the 800p screen leaves a lot to be desired especially without the size increase of the OLED model.
The Odin 2 Portal has a wildly bright OLED screen that's big enough for streamed AAA games. Outside of things like airplanes and car rides, the streaming experience is surprisingly good and I can do it over a Wireguard VPN. It's also way better for battery life: the thing can go pretty much all day streaming.
The Chinese handhelds have been really impressive with how they've kept prices down. I really don't know how AYN delivers a handheld with 8GB of RAM for $260, or with the Qualcomm 8Gen2 for $330.00. And they’re the premium priced vendor.
Apps like Game Native are starting to be really exciting. It's wild that we are able to install and play PC games on an Android handheld.
by Grombobulous
7/26/2026 at 10:33:02 AM
Inflation causes this. Prices go up, wages don't. For years and years. But hardware also got cheaper for years.by inigyou
7/26/2026 at 1:25:52 AM
I wonder…Can sufficient demand from a few parties destroy demand in other categories to a sufficient degree that it affects net demand entirely?
by bellowsgulch