An Amazon Echo price hike has pushed the base Echo Dot from $49.99 to $79.99 overnight, as the company confirmed it can no longer absorb surging memory and storage component costs that have driven DRAM prices up 80 to 90 per cent on the back of AI data centre demand.
An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed the increases, saying 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.”
Amazon Echo price hike: what has changed
The rises span Amazon’s full hardware range. The Echo Show 11 climbed from $219.99 to $249.99.
Kindle prices also moved sharply. The 16-gigabyte Kindle rose from $109.99 to $149.99, while the 16-gigabyte Kindle Paperwhite went from $159.99 to $199.99.
Fire TV Stick models were not spared. The Fire TV Stick HD moved from $34.99 to $39.99, and the Fire TV Stick 4K Max jumped from $59.99 to $84.99. The website Pocket-lint had earlier reported on the Fire TV increases.
Amazon’s eero mesh networking systems also rose. The eero 7 went from $349.99 to $399.99 and the eero Pro 7 from $699.99 to $799.99. Ring products were not included in the increases.
The spokeswoman said Amazon plans to offer promotions across its lineup throughout the year.
Memory shortage set to last, IDC warns
Amazon is not alone. Apple raised prices for its Macs and iPads in June to account for higher memory costs. Chief Executive Tim Cook described the situation as a “100-year flood on memory pricing.” Microsoft said it will increase Xbox console prices by $100 to $150 depending on the version and will drop its highest-end 2-terabyte configuration. Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Asus have also raised prices or cut the memory included in their products.
The pressure may not ease quickly. IDC warns the memory shortage could persist into 2027, as manufacturers prioritise high-margin AI memory over conventional DRAM, leaving consumer device makers with constrained supply and elevated costs.
Amazon’s own capital expenditure plans reflect that squeeze. In late July, Chief Executive Andy Jassy told investors that Amazon now expects to spend $220 billion this year on capital expenditure, primarily to build and equip data centres powering AI services, up from a prior estimate of $200 billion, owing to higher memory costs.
Even at that level, Jassy said Amazon still would not “have enough capacity to meet all the demand we have in 2026. And I believe this dynamic will also be true in 2027, too.”
Amazon’s cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, posted $42.2 billion in revenue in its second quarter, up 37% from $30.9 billion a year ago, its fastest growth in 18 quarters. Jassy called it the fifth consecutive quarter of accelerated growth.
The price increases land as Amazon prepares for an upcoming fall hardware event to unveil its newest devices.
