“Although there is issues around memory that we have to manage, [the RAM shortage] is generally great for our business because of our bill of materials cost advantage, which allows us to just have a lower cost than … all the competing products. That gap is just widening right now by a pretty wide margin,” Wood said, per a transcript of the call.
The executive also noted that the low costs associated with running Roku OS have helped the company win over TV OEMs and retailers.
Many tech companies have hiked prices recently due to the memory shortage. On the streaming hardware side, for example, Apple last month raised prices for Apple TV boxes from $129 to $199 for the 64GB version and from $149 to $249 for 128GB.
Apple has a reputation for selling high-end devices at a premium, though. Roku, on the other hand, has built a name for itself through affordability. The company may have a harder time getting people to accept higher prices for what have traditionally been viewed as budget products.
A Roku representative told The Desk that the company still thinks its devices are competitively priced.
“We are doing our best to have great deals like what we have going on right now,” the executive told the publication.
Roku’s price hikes come weeks after Fox announced it is buying Roku for an enterprise value of $22 billion. The deal remains subject to regulatory and shareholder approval and is expected to close in 2027.
