TVs may be costlier from January due to memory chips shortage weak rupee

Prices of televisions are expected to rise by 3-4 per cent from January next year on account of the rising cost of memory chips and depreciation of the rupee, which recently crossed the 90-to-a-dollar mark for the first time.

- TBG NETWORK

The falling rupee has put the industry in a precarious position, as the domestic value addition in an LED TV is around 30 per cent only, and major components like the open cell, semiconductor chips and motherboard, are imported. Moreover, this is coupled with the memory chip crisis, where a severe global shortage is driven by massive demand for High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI servers, causing prices for all memory types (DRAM, flash) to surge. Chipmakers are focusing on high-profit AI chips, tightening supply for legacy devices like TVs.