In 2020, there is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the global economy as well as the pace of technology advances and new product development in the electronics industry. Despite these delays, there have been a number of new innovations across the component industry, driving technology trends across various technologies, including 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), internet of things (IoT), and automotive safety. TrendForce's technology forecast for 2021 indicates that new technology adoption continues to ramp up. Here are the market researcher's top 10 technology trends. TrendForce expects the three major DRAM suppliers – Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron – to continue their transition towards the 1Z-nm and 1-alpha-nm process technologies, and officially introduce the EUV era, with Samsung leading the charge in 2021. DRAM suppliers will gradually replace their existing double patterning technologies in order to optimize their cost structure and manufacturing efficiency, said analysts.

PC prices are going up due to a shortage of a number of components, and the situation isn't expected to change in the coming quarters. A shortage of DRAM, SSDs, batteries, and LCDs have conspired to drive up PC prices, Gianfranco Lanci, corporate president and chief operating officer at Lenovo, said during an earnings call on Thursday. It's difficult to pin a number on the price increase because of the number of PC configurations available. The cost of purchasing these components is going up, which is triggering PC prices to also rise, said Lanci, a PC industry veteran. The shortage of components like memory will continue, Lanci said.