HANDHELD NEWS – The RAM and storage crisis is becoming so severe that even handheld PCs are now being hit by it.
Popular handheld maker Ayaneo recently shared bad news about its flagship system, the Next 2. The Next 2 launched last month at $1,799 for the version equipped with 32 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage, with smooth gaming performance powered by either the Ryzen AI Max 385 or the top-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395. The company says storage costs surged sharply after Chinese New Year, and that spike has now forced it to suspend sales of the Next 2. According to Ayaneo, the total manufacturing cost of the handheld has climbed above its selling price, making continued sales impossible. As a result, the company has removed the product from all of its sales channels. Users who already placed orders through Indiegogo will still receive their units, but no new pre-orders will be accepted going forward.
“After Chinese New Year, when we communicated with our suppliers again to confirm the latest storage procurement prices, we found that storage prices had increased severalfold since before the holiday. Under such circumstances, the overall cost of the product has become far higher than our current selling price. Therefore, after careful consideration, we have decided to suspend Next 2 pre-orders. In fact, even before Next 2‘s launch, storage prices had already been rising for several months. At that time, we believed the price might be approaching its peak. Even if it meant making little to no profit, or even taking a slight loss, we decided to move forward with the launch. However, what we did not expect was that storage prices would not only continue rising, but would increase even faster. Currently, the total cost of the product far exceeds our selling price and is approaching twice the original price. Under such circumstances, continuing to sell this product is no longer sustainable”, wrote Ayaneo.
If Ayaneo‘s claims are accurate, the Next 2‘s 32 GB/1 TB configuration with the Ryzen AI Max 385 could now cost more than $3,000. Considering that the flagship Next 2 model, featuring the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 128 GB of memory and 2 TB of storage, was announced at an early bird price of $3,499, it is easy to see that the company likely already had a hard time moving units at that figure, let alone at the regular $4,299 price.
The good news is that Ayaneo has not canceled the Next 2. It has only suspended sales for the time being. Hopefully, once RAM and SSD prices settle down, the Next 2 and its rivals will be able to return to the market at more reasonable prices.
