According to a report by Gartner, relayed by Zdnet.com, the strong US dollar is a reason for a decline in PC shipments, with impacted regions including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and Latin America. Quoting Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, "These impacted regions posted double-digit declines in the third quarter [...] The global PC market has experienced price increases of around 10 percent throughout the year, due to the sharp appreciation of the US dollar against local currencies. In the third quarter of 2015, this continued to be a major cause for weaker demand in those regions."

Earlier this year it was already announced that motherboard manufacturers would be increasing their price in Europe due to the falling Euro currency. It appears that this trend is now affecting the majority of the PC tech industry as you can notice for example by the price of the Core i7 6700K. Gartner further comments that "The currency squeeze is forcing PC vendors to increase their prices in order to remain profitable and, as result, it is suppressing purchases. We expect businesses will delay purchases of new PCs, and consumers will delay or 'de-feature' their purchases. However, this reduction in purchasing is not a downturn; it is a reshaping of the market driven by currency."

It's however not all doom and gloom for the PC enthusiasts as raising prices may eventually lead to more innovation. The K-SKU product segment remains a highly profitable business for Intel, so hopefully we see even more product quality innovation in the next couple of years!