We suppose it had to happen at some point – much like Apple and Samsung as of late, Google has now joined a growing number of smartphone manufacturers who have had to raise smartphone prices by a considerable amount, as the consumer tech industry continues to face rising component costs brought on by an increased demand in AI facilities.
More specifically, the Pixel 10a has now climbed up in price, going for $599 in the United States, €649 throughout Europe, and £599 in the UK. This hundred-dollar bump now makes it the most expensive Pixel A-series phone to date – by contrast, the cheapest Pixel A-series phone was the Pixel 4a, which came in priced at just $349.
For those out of the loop, many companies have gone forward with raising their prices due to memory chips, which are being purchased in huge amounts for AI data centers. As a result, this leaves fewer supply for phones, hence the higher prices this year.
Going back to the Pixel 10a, this now defeats the main purpose of the phone, which is meant to serve as a “cheaper” entry point within Google’s smartphone ecosystem. We can’t say that we’d be surprised should more potential Pixel smartphone buyers opt to buy last year’s Pixel 9a instead, although truth be told there’s not much of a big difference between the two smartphones.
