Ayaneo discontinues Snapdragon 8 Elite based Pocket FIT console due to rising costs | Infinium-tech
Things aren’t getting better – they’re getting worse. The current semiconductor shortage is impacting RAM, SSD and CPU prices and companies are applying emergency brakes.
Ayaneo has just announced that after several months of delays, the Konkr Pocket FIT 8Elite is now shipping. Unfortunately, the Indiegogo post announcing it ends on a sad note:
Please also note that due to the recent increase in storage component prices, future production costs will increase significantly. As a result, following this upcoming restock, the Pocket FIT 8Elite will likely be the final production batch, and will be available until supplies last, with no current plans for further restocking.
If you haven’t been following along with the product launch, the Konkr Pocket FIT is an Android-powered handheld game console with a 6″ 1080p 144Hz LCD, 8,000mAh battery, and the choice between the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 and Snapdragon 8 Elite. It’s the latter version that is being discontinued. Presumably, there is less demand for the gaming-oriented G3 chip, which should allow that version to remain available.
Ayaneo Konkr Pocket Fit 8Elite
But at this time, not only the ARM side but the entire market is suffering losses. The Windows-based Ayaneo Next 2 is also affected and sales have been suspended. The Next 2 is a great machine with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo), 32/64/128GB RAM, 1/2TB SSD, 9.06″ OLED display (165Hz, 2,400 x 1,504px), and a 116Wh battery. It also had a pretty low price, at $2,000. However, even that wasn’t sustainable.
Ayaneo Next 2
Here’s what Ayaneo said in the Indiegogo post. This will give you an idea of how bad things are right now:
However, after the Chinese New Year, when we contacted our suppliers again to confirm the latest storage purchase prices, we found that storage prices had become several times higher than before the holiday. Under such circumstances, the total cost of the product exceeds our current selling price. Therefore, after careful consideration, we have decided to suspend pre-orders for NEXT 2.
Currently, the total cost of the product has far exceeded our selling price, even approaching double the price we originally set. Under such circumstances, selling this product is no longer sustainable.
Ayaneo isn’t the only company facing problems – stock of Valve’s Steam Deck is running low, while the Steam Machine and Steam Frame VR launches have been pushed to an uncertain future date. Recently, Intel announced that it was raising the prices of its CPUs by up to 10% – and soon after AMD announced that it would do the same with an increase of up to 15%.
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