Laptops are expected to come with a higher amount of memory usage this year, especially because of the AI laptops developed together with Microsoft, which on average need a minimum amount of 16GB of memory to power the built-in Copilot artificial intelligence features.
According to the TrendForce report, this year it is expected that the average amount of memory on laptops will increase to 11.8GB compared to 10.5GB last year. In terms of total increase, it's only a 1.3GB increase over last year, but when viewed in percentage terms, it's a 12 percent increase.
If you are asking about why only 1.3GB increase is shown when many laptops launched this year have 16GB memory, it is because one laptop market still has many 8GB memory configurations, namely Apple MacBook.
Most Apple laptops and desktops such as the MacBook Air and Mac Mini still come with a minimum memory offering of 8GB. This may change in the future when Apple offers built-in AI functions in their MacBooks, but for now, the optimization of their operating system allows users of these devices to take advantage of the low amount of memory.
The trend of using more memory in desktop computers and laptops is also expected to increase from year to year, if not from quarter to quarter, especially when memory offerings such as CAMM2 are expected to start soon.