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The UK has so far largely managed to rely on PC inventory and older stocks to be able to resist passing on hardware price rises because of component shortages. Although there has been some ability to delay cost increases, market watchers Context are warning that the situation will change over the next few months. Increases in memory prices are already causing the channel headaches, with customer issues created by the upward revision of questions as the price rises filter through. Context has tracked prices, comparing the end of year costs to the average between July to September, and found that the cost of memory rose sharply in December. Different markets and form factors rose at differing rates, but all were headed upwards, with consumer SSD climbing by 35% between summer and the end of the year. Those increases are inevitably filtering into the pricing offered by the UK channel, leading to Context forecasting a challenging period for the industry over the next few months. “The UK is currently in a short window where pricing ...