A Weibo account of smartphone industry insider reported that the cost of 12GB memory and 256GB storage for phones increased 1700 RMB (~253 USD) in a year to 2200 RMB (~327 USD; imgs below). This is significant because Switch 2 uses the same mobile components (12GB LPDDR5X and 256GB UFS). It’s 65% of the Switch 2 new MSRP (500 USD)!
Although Nintendo already secured enough memory-related components for this fiscal year and held 618B JPY (~3.86B USD) of inventories as of 2026-03-31, retaining their product pricing next year is going to be tough.
P.S.: The quoted numbers are likely spot prices (market rates for comparison purposes). The actual contract prices for long-term, high volume orders should be lower.
P.P.S.: As someone who pre-ordered the Playdate, I admire Panic’s decision to refund the tariffs, but it shows their inexperience in managing a hardware platform. Since costs will continue to rise and new tariffs are being planned, it could’ve been used as a buffer. On the other hand, Playdate is a 4GB device sold for 229 USD; I guess they’d be alright.
[Originally posted on 2026-08-29 Pacific Time]
