Your hardware refresh is planned. Q4, a few new devices, budget approved. The same process that has worked for the last five years.
Here is the part that has changed: the memory chips those machines need are in short supply across the entire industry, supply is already spoken for into 2027, and the comfortable window you assumed you had is narrowing faster than most people realise.
What is actually happening
Apple is scrambling to secure sufficient memory for the iPhone 18 Pro series. The same constraint is already hitting Mac hardware, with Bloomberg reporting that many new Mac orders are not arriving until September, with further slippage likely. But this is not just an Apple problem.
Memory supply is constrained globally. The Global Electronics Association reports that 62% of electronics manufacturers are already experiencing constrained availability or extended lead times, with 82% expecting rising prices. Gartner predicted in February a 130% surge in combined memory and SSD storage prices by the end of this year. That prediction is playing out across the board: Macs, Windows PCs, storage hardware, networking equipment.
The underlying cause is AI infrastructure demand. High-bandwidth memory needed to power AI data centres has outstripped what fabrication plants can produce. Capacity that would normally go into business devices has been redirected. Vendors have already sold their entire memory allocation for 2027.
What this means for your studio or practice
The constraint lands in the same way whether you run Macs, Windows machines, or a mix of both.
New hardware costs more. Prices are moving upward across the whole market. Gartner's February prediction that the sub-$500 entry-level PC segment will disappear by 2028 appears to be playing out ahead of schedule. If your refresh budget was calculated against 2024 or 2025 price points, it may not stretch as far as planned.
Availability is less predictable. High-memory configurations, whether MacBook Pros, Mac Studios, or Windows workstations built for render or production work, are the most likely to see extended waits. The same applies to Windows hardware from manufacturers competing for the same constrained supply.
Peripherals, storage and networking are caught in the same squeeze. The shortage extends well beyond computers. Routers, network-attached storage, external drives and smart networking hardware are all experiencing shipping delays and price increases. A studio infrastructure refresh that touches switching or storage needs the same forward planning as a device order.
Already looking at a 2027 refresh? Vendors have already sold out their memory allocation for next year. If your timeline runs into early 2027, factor that into your planning now rather than when you come to order.
The assumption that no longer holds
Most hardware refresh plans are built on one quiet assumption: that if the budget is there, the hardware will follow. That assumption is breaking down.
Studios and practices that wait until a machine fails before ordering a replacement are now facing a harder recovery. A workstation that goes down in November may not have a direct replacement in stock until well into the new year. For a studio running against production schedules, or an architecture practice mid-tender, that gap is not a minor inconvenience.
The lead time buffer that used to take days now warrants weeks, particularly for higher-spec configurations.
The supply picture also has a downstream effect on what is available at all. Smaller manufacturers without the purchasing power of the major vendors are being squeezed out. Routers, AV equipment and storage hardware from second and third-tier brands may simply not be available at the price points they were twelve months ago.
What to do now
None of this requires a panic purchase. It does require moving hardware planning from reactive to deliberate.
Review your refresh schedule. Which machines are two or three years old and likely due in the next twelve to eighteen months? Identify them now rather than when they fail.
Order ahead of need where you can. The devices you need in Q1 next year may be worth ordering this quarter. The same applies to any networking hardware or storage on your refresh list.
Build realistic cost increases into budgets. If refresh budgets are set in Q3 for the following financial year, factor in a material uplift. A 15 to 20% increase on hardware line items is a reasonable working assumption for 2027 procurement.
Run compute and infrastructure procurement in parallel. If your refresh covers switches, NAS or external storage alongside computers, plan the orders together. Running them sequentially risks hitting availability gaps at each stage.
Business-PRO Strategic clients: forward hardware planning is already part of your technology roadmap. Raise the refresh timeline in your next vCIO session and we will review what needs to move.
Studios on Business-PRO Core or ad hoc support: talk to us before you order. We can check current lead times, confirm pricing and help you prioritise if the budget does not cover everything at once.
For anyone not sure where to start, the conversation is worth having before you need to order rather than when you do.
Planning a hardware refresh in the next six months? Lead times and pricing are moving fast. The sooner we look at your requirements, the more options you have.