Comment by andor
4 hours ago
The RAM/SSD price spikes are not shrinkflation, but the article gives examples of shrinkflation happening due to it:
* Google's upcoming folding phone is going to have less RAM than the current model.
* Motorola has both increased the price on their Razr flip phone and downsized the minimum storage
* Sony reduced storage on the PS5 Slim
...
All of those could also be classified as "they learned consumers didn't need that much."
I see.
So when the tub of ice cream decreases in size from 64 ounces to 60, 56, 52, and finally 48 ounces while the price stays the same (or even goes up), then:
That's not necessarily shrinkflation; that might instead be a result of having learned that consumers didn't need so much ice cream.
There's nothing "finally" about 48 oz. Some brands are edging smaller. What I've noticed is 32oz. cartons gaining prominence in grocery stores, while the 48's seem to be slowly getting phased out.
If this were true, they could have learned it at any time before now.
When the changes are done precisely during a time of huge increases in the prices of all kinds of memory devices, it is hard to believe that this is a random coincidence.
Or (for some of them) they could have previously been chasing the stupid spec numbers for advertising and realized they can save money if they just stop doing that.
See Apple as an example, who really doesn't care about telling you the newest phone has 12GB of ram. It's literally not even mentioned on the tech specs page.
I'm really appreciative of how much spin I learn on this site, should I ever want a career in PR or marketing