Contract prices for mainstream DRAM chips have posted enlarged drops in the later half of October, reflecting a demand-supply imbalance expected to last till the first quarter of 2011, said inSpectrum. Though some PC makers are resuming memory content growth for their systems, this is not going to impose meaningful impact on pricing in the near term, the firm noted.
Mainstream 2GB DDR3 contract price has dropped by 9% sequentially to US$28.80 in the later half of October. Price of the same-density DDR2 has dropped by 3% to US$31.
Although notebook shipments may have a chance to post mild growth in October, market observers still believe that the fourth quarter will see flat notebook shipment growth. As most PC OEMs have inventories of over four weeks on average, they will not have strong incentives for replenishments if shipments do post big growth, inSpectrum commented.
On the supply side, major vendors' production plans are in line with their respective guidance, meaning supply bit growth will continue growing but demand will remain flat.