The Japanese crisis will affect how much we are going to pay for the latest gizmos.
We can expect them to become more expensive with reports that prices for key technology components have risen by at least 20% because of the damage at Japanese plants and infrastructure caused by Friday's devastating earthquake. The quake and tsunami threaten to disrupt the global manufacturing chain longer than many had expected.
Japan accounts for about 20% of the world's semiconductor production. That includes about 40 per cent of flash memory chips used in everything from smartphones, tablets to computers. Even if shipments of semiconductor parts affected by the quake are disrupted for only two weeks, the price impact will linger well into the year. And that will mean more expensive smart phones, tablets and computers.
The Financial Times reports that companies affected by the shortages include Texas Instruments, Hitachi. Panasonic, Toshiba (which which supplies about one-third of the world's NAND chips) Canon, Nikon, NEC and Sony.
Get ready for the price rises as the chip makers try to recoup their losses.
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