Lenovo Implements March Price Hikes: Urgent Action Required

Lenovo, the world’s largest PC manufacturer, has issued a stark warning to its North American partners: place your orders immediately or face imminent price increases. As the company prepares to adjust its pricing strategy next month, executives are urging distributors and solution providers to act before the February 25 deadline to ensure their orders are processed and submitted by the end of the month.

The upcoming price adjustments are reportedly driven by significant spikes in DRAM costs, which are currently straining both the Intelligent Devices Group (IDG)—covering PCs, tablets, and smartphones—and the Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG). These rising component costs have forced Lenovo to re-evaluate its margins, with North American leadership indicating that adjustments are now unavoidable in the current supply chain climate.

The new strategy introduces significant uncertainty regarding shipment timelines. According to reports, Lenovo is not only applying the price hikes to new orders but may also reprice existing orders that fail to ship by March 31. This policy shift places the burden of logistics timing directly onto the partners, as placing an order by the end of February is no longer a guarantee of securing current pricing.

To mitigate risk, Lenovo North America Channel Chief Wade McFarland has recommended a hard deadline of February 25 for partners. This buffer is intended to provide distributors sufficient time to formally submit the documentation to Lenovo before the February 28 cutoff. Failing to meet this window leaves partners vulnerable to being charged the new, higher rates upon shipment.

The policy change has sparked considerable anxiety among Lenovo’s partner network. One anonymous executive from a major partner firm expressed frustration with the "shipment-linked" pricing model, noting that partners are essentially accepting orders without a guaranteed price, as Lenovo reserves the right to adjust costs if logistics delays prevent a March delivery.

In addition to these structural changes, Lenovo is tightening its quotation windows to better manage volatile costs. Price quotes on Lenovo’s internal bidding platform will now be limited to just 14 days, while the external platform used by resellers and solution providers will be restricted to a 30-day window. These shortened durations are designed to shield Lenovo from the rapidly fluctuating prices of the global DRAM market.

Despite the strain this places on the channel, Lenovo’s leadership maintains that these adjustments are a necessary response to broader macroeconomic pressures. With the ISG unit already beginning to reprice select deals, the company is signaling that the era of fixed, long-term pricing for commercial hardware may be temporarily suspended as it navigates this period of high component inflation.