The thing is, are they really leaving money on the table? Higher prices means less customers, yes, but also higher profits per unit. We don’t actually know right now how many people would be willing to pay these new prices: if it costs twice as much but half the customers are still fine buying it, then profit stayed the same. And with no choice, I suspect much more than half are going to pay double.
Of course, the people who wouldn’t do that are a potential market, but they are also a much lower profit margin. Comparably, that’s probably not that much for these people.
There’s a whole segment who are going unserved because of those high prices. Gamers across the board and enthusiasts, the entire consumer market, because RAM is too expensive. Someone else figures out how to make RAM at scale and undercut the fake inflation of the cartel could make billions easily. That’s money sitting on the table.
The thing is, are they really leaving money on the table? Higher prices means less customers, yes, but also higher profits per unit. We don’t actually know right now how many people would be willing to pay these new prices: if it costs twice as much but half the customers are still fine buying it, then profit stayed the same. And with no choice, I suspect much more than half are going to pay double.
Of course, the people who wouldn’t do that are a potential market, but they are also a much lower profit margin. Comparably, that’s probably not that much for these people.
There’s a whole segment who are going unserved because of those high prices. Gamers across the board and enthusiasts, the entire consumer market, because RAM is too expensive. Someone else figures out how to make RAM at scale and undercut the fake inflation of the cartel could make billions easily. That’s money sitting on the table.