Yup. I just checked Newegg, and laptop form factor DDR4 (not DDR5ᵃ) RAM is selling for $126 for 64 GB (2 x 32 GB).
So market price for 1 GB of DDR4 small form factor RAM is $1.96 per GB.
ᵃ DDR5 is almost twice the cost.
Apple is charging 200/8 = $25 per GB.
Apple charges 12 times the retail price of DDR4, and about 6 times the retail price of DDR5.
It's crazy, but they get away with it by soldering these chips down.
If we could legislate a working effective Right to Repair bill, we might be able to fix this predicament.
This would be really horrible, and I hope it never happens. I was just readin up on CAMMᵃᵇ, and to me, CAM looks really promising. It solves the challenges with SODIMM, and the article says:
> We mentioned the faster DDR5 speeds above, but it is thought that CAMM could really take off when DDR6 arrives. Another appealing variation might be for adding LPDDR(6) memory to laptops. Traditionally LPDDR memory is soldered, so the new spring contact fitting modules might mean much better upgradability for the thinnest and lightest devices which tend to use LPDDR memory.
I'd like to see legislation passed (even if at the state/regional/provincial level) that forces laptop (and other device) manufacturers to use user-replaceable CAMM memory modules instead of solder-on modules (unless solder-on memory is absolutely needed/justified by a high technical need for it – and the bar for this should be high). Similar legislation for batteries, device screens, etc. – mandate standard interfaces and easy replacibility.
This will likely increase BOM, but it shouldn't add more than $10 to the overall average retail price of various devices.
ᵃ https://www.tomshardware.com/news/camm-to-usurp-so-dimm-lapt...
ᵇ https://www.pcworld.com/article/693366/dell-defends-its-cont...
