What just happened? Amazon is following in the footsteps of virtually every company on earth by increasing the price of its first-party products as a result of the memory crisis. Everything from the Echo smart speaker to the Fire TV line has become more expensive, with some items going up by as much as 60%.
Amazon's price hikes include an increase in the base Echo Dot from $49.99 to $79.99, Fortune reports. Elsewhere, the Echo Show 11 now costs $249.99, a $30 jump from its previous $219.99 price.
E-reader fans will pay a hefty $40 more for the 16GB Kindle, which is now $149.99, while the 16GB Kindle Paperwhite has increased by the same amount, rising from $159.99 to $199.99.
Amazon's Fire TV line and routers haven't been spared, either. The Fire TV Stick HD has risen from $34.99 to $39.99, while the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is up from $59.99 to $84.99. The Fire TV Cube streaming set-top box has gone from $139.99 to $199.99.
The Amazon eero 7 wireless mesh networking system, which has three devices, has increased by $50, from $349.99 to $399.99, but the biggest hike is reserved for the eero Pro 7. Buying this three-pack now costs $100 more, with the price pushed from $699.99 to $799.99.
| Product | Category | Previous price | New price | Increase | Increase (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Echo Dot | Smart speaker | $49.99 | $79.99 | $30 | 60% |
| Echo Show 11 | Smart display | $219.99 | $249.99 | $30 | 13.6% |
| Kindle (16GB) | E-reader | $109.99 | $149.99 | $40 | 36.4% |
| Kindle Paperwhite (16GB) | E-reader | $159.99 | $199.99 | $40 | 25% |
| Fire TV Stick HD | Streaming device | $34.99 | $39.99 | $5 | 14.3% |
| Fire TV Stick 4K Select | Streaming device | $40 | $50 | $10 | 25% |
| Fire TV Stick 4K Plus | Streaming device | $50 | $70 | $20 | 40% |
| Fire TV Stick 4K Max | Streaming device | $59.99 | $84.99 | $25 | 41.7% |
| Fire TV Cube | Streaming device | $140 | $200 | $60 | 42.9% |
| eero 7 (three-pack) | Mesh Wi-Fi system | $349.99 | $399.99 | $50 | 14.3% |
| eero Pro 7 (three-pack) | Mesh Wi-Fi system | $699.99 | $799.99 | $100 | 14.3% |
One Amazon segment that hasn't been affected is its line of Ring products. Whether the home security and smart home devices avoid the hikes permanently remains to be seen.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the price increases and the depressingly familiar reason behind them.
The retail giant said that the consumer electronics industry is "facing significant increases in memory and storage component costs. After absorbing these increases for as long as we could, we recently adjusted pricing across our product lines."
The list of companies passing the burden of the AI-driven memory crunch on to customers keeps growing. Memory and storage suppliers Samsung, Micron, SanDisk, SK Hynix, Western Digital, and Seagate have raised or adjusted prices, while PC makers Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus, and Acer have confirmed increases of their own.
They have since been joined by MSI, Microsoft's Surface division, Apple, and Raspberry Pi. Gaming hardware has been hit just as hard, with increases from AMD, Nvidia, Sony, Nintendo, Valve, and Microsoft's Xbox business. In mobile, Transsion, Oppo, Vivo, Honor, and Xiaomi have been forced to lift retail prices, while Qualcomm has announced a double-digit increase for chips shipping from September.