According to the Taiwan-based United Daily News (UDN,)  OEMs are reporting an unusually high surge in annual Windows license pricing, which scales even higher for PCs with higher-end CPUs. This surge is already reflected in current market pricing, but was still disproportionate to the usual single-digit increases. Now, annual license pricing has already increased by as much as 10%. The ranges do seem to vary, though, with the Taiwan branches of ASUS and Acer only reporting a 5% increase.

Even where OEMs may have been profiting on other high-margin components, Microsoft will be taking an even larger cut on high-end PC sales with expensive CPUs.

Some OEMs may be tempted to go the SteamOS route, which will be even cheaper for system builders who already favor AMD hardware. Users shopping for a more traditional Windows experience would be displeased with a major pivot to Linux, though, so it's somewhat unlikely to see a substantial growth in SteamOS market share. That said, we've seen it done to great effect with products like Lenovo's Legion Go S, so there could be promise for it in certain gaming segments.

Windows 11 PCs - Image: Microsoft

Whether or not manufacturers choose to pay Microsoft's increased licensing rate, it's clear that the PC space won't be getting cheaper any time soon. The memory shortage is the primary driver of price hikes, and it's projected to continue until at least 2027, if not years longer. Even last-gen memory and storage kits are going up in price due to the mass scrambling for all available NAND flash. DIY can be promising, but comes with its own drawbacks, especially when stock is low.