Consumers are increasingly upgrading laptops on their own

In the Russian Federation, retail sales of drives and RAM modules for computers, primarily laptops, are growing, representatives of retailers and marketplaces note. Experts explain that laptops sold in the country are often equipped with RAM in an amount “insufficient for modern tasks.” Rarer advanced models are significantly more expensive. As a result, users prefer to upgrade their existing devices or save on new ones by upgrading them on their own.

Sales of internal solid-state drives of the M.2 format in 2023 in the Citylink network increased by 43% in units, on the Ozon marketplace – more than three times, the companies told Kommersant. We are talking about compact (up to 8 cm in length) drives used as main drives in laptops. Citylink also notes a 9% increase in sales of SO-DIMM RAM modules, also used in laptops.

M.2 drives, in addition to laptops, are also used in assembling stationary PCs – they provide higher speeds than traditional 2.5-inch drives. Ozon believes that the popularity of compact drives has grown precisely due to PCs, not laptops: “M.2 drives are becoming more affordable, and their share in total sales of internal drives increased by 7.91 percentage points, to 23.66% ” Citylink noted that it is impossible to say unambiguously for what type of computers the components were purchased, but one of the drivers of growth could be a reduction in cost in 2023.

Imports of laptops to Russia in 2023 decreased by 41%, to 2 million units (see Kommersant on January 22), despite the fact that the average price of devices decreased from 62.3 thousand to 60.7 thousand rubles, including due to the appearance of Chinese brands on the market (data from Fplus, which Vedomosti cited in December). Market participants and experts note that the decline in laptop sales and the increase in sales of spare parts for them may be related.

“The increase in sales of components is due to the desire of buyers to expand the functionality of budget computer models,” believes Igor Osipov, project manager of the Inferit PC development department (Softline Group of Companies). “A lot of laptops come with 8 GB of RAM. This is now extremely small, and many are upgrading their devices to 16 GB.”

Robbo CEO Andrey Smirnov adds that citizens often upgrade laptops purchased more than three years ago with the help of private technicians or on their own using instructions from the Internet. Some “rational buyers,” adds Mr. Smirnov, expand the memory in a new laptop right away: “This turns out to be more profitable than buying an older model.”

Inferit Sales Director Oleg Epishin notes another reason for the growth in demand – increased interest in mini-PCs that use the same components as laptops: “By installing fast M.2 drives and RAM, you can assemble a fairly productive alternative to a full-size PC “

Yuri Litvinenko