The Roku Ultra now costs $150 instead of $100.
Roku is raising its prices across its hardware lineup. The Desk first reported on the price changes after noticing that the company’s devices are now priced up to $50 higher. Roku has also confirmed its price hikes to Engadget. The company’s devices are currently on sale on Roku’s official website, with their old prices listed as the discounted prices. Roku Ultra, its top-of-the-line streaming device, now costs $150, up $50 from its old price of $100. Meanwhile, the most basic Roku Streaming Stick will now set you back $40 instead of $30.
According to The Desk, Roku raised the prices of its devices due to rising memory costs. A company executive reportedly told the publication that Roku made the “tough decision” to raise its prices on streaming hardware to address shortages in memory and other components caused by the AI boom.
During the company’s last earnings call, Roku CEO Anthony J. Wood said its devices use significantly less memory than competitors and that the parts used to make its devices cost less than rival’s more premium components. Roku was, thus, expecting its business to be less affected than its rivals. Since Roku’s hardware business is mostly third-party, Wood was positioning the rise in memory prices as something that could be good for it. He said it could attract more manufacturers to Roku, as the prices to build its rivals’ devices grow bigger. These price hikes show that the company is also feeling the effects of the memory crunch when it comes to its first-party devices, if they now cost up to 50 percent more than before.
