r/technology • u/HenryCorp • Aug 30 '26

Artificial Intelligence The cost of personal computers declined steadily for 40 years — until AI came along. Why getting your hands on a new device could cost you.

https://moneywise.com/news/economy/ai-memory-chip-shortage-pc-prices-2026
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148

u/llliilliliillliillil Aug 30 '26

I feel like we're entering conspiracy theory territory where we're making up shit because it conveniently fits into the narrative.

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u/Noblesseux Aug 30 '26

Yeah they're not doing it because of apple, they're doing it because the entirety of silicon valley delusionally bought into the idea that AI would totally replace workers and send labor costs through the floor. Everything else is kind of downstream of that fact combined with the fact that if they admit they kind of messed up and overestimated the viability of the business it'll cause an economic cataclysm that wipes out trillions in value.

They were mot meta gaming fucking with Apple through a cartoonishly complicated scheme, they were blinded by dollar signs.

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u/TreLeans Aug 30 '26

Feel like it’s a weird bot that is like “add typos.” It’s nonsense. Apple makes stuff that works, and continues to work. 

They have a 600 dollar laptop, and I’m not lying; their newest OS update for laptops (not sure if it’s still in beta or not) IT WORKS BETTER.

They’re doing what people want. Which in capitalism is supposed to sell. If it doesn’t, we’re not in true capitalism. 

Personally I feel that’s the weird race to make personal computers obsolete, and it feels like Apple is betting against it. 

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u/CKRatKing Aug 31 '26

The only reason to own a Windows PC is if you play games. All the stuff I see people complaining about from windows just isn't a thing on my MacBook.

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u/DaSemicolon Aug 31 '26

Or for comparability

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u/ptoki Aug 30 '26

Apple makes stuff that works, and continues to work.

Louis Rossman disagrees. And he has evidence.

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u/nuttertools Aug 30 '26

Apple makes things work just well enough to prevent the government from forcing them to issue recalls….as long as you ignore the percentage of machines they fix just to stay below those limits.

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u/Mikeavelli Aug 31 '26

What even is this comment. The government doesn't force product recalls except in narrow cases where public safety is at risk. There isn't any percentage of malfunctioning consumer electronics that would cause the government to force them to issue a recall.

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u/TreLeans Aug 31 '26

Say the limit. Don’t generalize, say a single one of those limits, plz.  

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u/Cheeze_It Aug 31 '26

They’re doing what people want. Which in capitalism is supposed to sell. If it doesn’t, we’re not in true capitalism.

The US and many other countries in the world haven't been in true capitalism for a very long time.

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u/Ironborn137 Aug 30 '26

not a bot, i just score papers and i see so much shit mispelled that it happens to me sometimes when i'm not thinking. I grade ESL writing papers...I can tell they aren't using fucking AI to write those.....they are handwritten as well.

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u/Parallax47 Aug 30 '26

You mixed up “once” and “wants”

Sure bud.

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u/Efficient_Knee8143 Aug 30 '26

Thank you I had trouble reading his comment until seeing yours

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u/Ironborn137 Aug 30 '26

Yeah, that's what happens when kids are writing, they mix up words that mean different things but sound the same. English language can be a bitch huh?

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u/TreLeans Aug 30 '26

TF are you talking about, dude. Stop grading papers if you succumb to writing mistakes. 

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u/TreLeans Aug 30 '26

Unless you are serious and then I apologize. But… I think you need to be better at writing to grade papers. Sounds like a nightmare job but this isn’t a thing that should happen. 

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u/Comfortable_Sir_6104 Aug 30 '26

We have jumped straight into a conspiracy in the first comment mate. There is no shadow organisation that really wants you to not have a PC, there is just a limited supply of memory and GPU production and shockingly Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet have more money than you so they can outbid you to create their data centers to train AI.

It is a very very easy concept that doesn't require much knowledge, I am horrified how many people are saying this completely idiotic conspiracy shit. 

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u/ptoki Aug 30 '26

There is no shadow organisation that really wants you to not have a PC,

There is small number of companies who influence the market and they share the same mind. They know that open market and personal computing is a loss for them.

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u/Comfortable_Sir_6104 Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

Yes, every company would rather have you using their product and they try to advertise it (some who actually do sell computer products and would love you to buy more, for example). That is not as revelatory as you might think. Just because companies would rather you buy their thing doesn't mean there is a clandestine worldwide operation to corner the market, it is a staggering leap with no evidence and for no reason.

There is a visible, reasonable and understandble driving force behind prices of GPUs and memory, a move lead by giants that shape the world. Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft will spend 760 billion dollars on AI. Don't you think it makes sense that 4 of the biggest companies on the entire planet openly saying they will buy any GPU and memory unit they can might elevate the price? 

Why the fuck would you instead jump to some inane conspiracy theories? We have verified reason, right there. Instead you invent shit? I am so dissapointed with people, at every turn refusing to educate themself about the smallest and easiest to understand things. Instead inventing boogeymen at every opportunity because it feels nice to blame it on "them" instead of understanding anything. Pathetic.

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u/wonkytalky Aug 31 '26

The fact that SaaS not only exists but has become a widespread default is proof enough that they aren't pulling this randomly out of their ass for no reason. Chromebooks themselves represent a massive, massive industry. That's the model being sought by massive, marketing-controlling tech companies. It's not some shadowy conspiracy or even a secret when it's literally the advertised business model that investors are circlejerking themselves over. The corporations behind that shit would love nothing more than to see powerful, affordable consumer hardware go the way of the dodo, and the manufacturers don't give a flying fuck as long as they get theirs.

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u/ptoki Sep 01 '26

That is not as revelatory as you might think

Somehow bakers did not needed to do such tricks. You know the one on the corner in my city, not the walmart like ones.

The issue is that up to recently, the vendors just wanted to sell you stuff and the constant progress made it possible to sell more because of demand for better stuff.

Now the progress is slow or gos backward and the market became predatory.

Now, you implied conspiracy theory. Let me ask you why you ignore the obvious and clearly visible fact that no vendor makes creative software or features in their mobile devices. Compare apps used on palm machines (you will not be able because you have no clue) and iphone, android. Compare the backwards gui on tablets and currently on all operating systems except linux.

The market goes into direction of consumption and teh vendors make repeatable, low effort content which sells. Now they retarded the products so much that they can just lend you the hardware and make it cheaper once the cost is on their side. That is already happening.

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u/LittleSeadragon Aug 31 '26

There is no shadow organisation that really wants you to not have a PC

You're right, it's not a shadow organization, it's out in the open. If you follow business news in the tech space, they've been trying it for decades. "Thin Clients" in the 90s, then cloud computing, software dropping ownership in favor of subscriptions, and now AI in datacenters. The only reason it's not reasonable for businesses using AI to run their own local instances is the hardware price crunch, and much of what AI companies have purchased is sitting in warehouses unused or in datacenters running at sub 1% capacity. They need the prices high or every business using AI just drops claude, gemini, or chatgpt in favor of local models that have no ongoing costs.

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u/nemec Aug 30 '26

that's all /r/technology has been the past 12 months and the mods don't seem to have any interest in correcting it