{"id":548386,"date":"2006-03-29T20:23:56","date_gmt":"2006-03-29T20:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/548386-good-news-for-users-flash-dram-prices-falling.html"},"modified":"2006-03-29T20:23:56","modified_gmt":"2006-03-29T20:23:56","slug":"good-news-for-users-flash-dram-prices-falling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/548386-good-news-for-users-flash-dram-prices-falling.html","title":{"rendered":"Good news for users: flash, DRAM prices falling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prices of the NAND flash memory chips used to store data in gadgets ranging from digital cameras to MP3 players, as well as dynamic RAM (DRAM), which store data temporarily and play a large role in the speed of a PC, are falling.<\/font><\/p>\n

The main reason for the decline in prices is the time of year. The slowest time for IT product sales is normally between April and June, with some hangover as the summer drags on and people go on vacation. <\/p>\n

By mid-May or June, it will be a great time to pick up extra DRAM modules to help perk up a PC, or even look into digital music players. <\/p>\n

Often, when memory prices decline, companies that make MP3 players add more memory to new models and slash prices on older ones.<\/font><\/p>\n

DRAM prices on the global spot market have dropped in the past two weeks to recent lows of around $4,58 per chip for the most widely used 512Mb version of double data rate 2 (DDR2), compared to $5,45 a month ago, according to information from researcher DRAMeXchange Technology. <\/p>\n

It has been more dramatic for NAND flash, where prices for the most widely used 2G-bit chips slid by 33% in the first half of March.<\/font><\/p>\n

"Moving ahead to [the second quarter], DRAMeXchange is still doubtful about any price rebound," the company says.<\/font><\/p>\n

Nam Hyung Kim, a memory industry analyst at iSuppli, believes NAND prices have declined due to weak demand for digital music players. <\/p>\n

Brisk holiday demand late last year gave way to a short period of shelf restocking by retailers early this year, but now demand has slowed.<\/font><\/p>\n

The slowdown prompted iSuppli to lower its forecast on Tuesday for the global NAND flash memory market, to $13,8bn from $16bn previously. Last year, the market was worth $10,8bn.<\/font><\/p>\n

There is plenty of other evidence for weak flash memory prices. Lexar Media, a developer of NAND devices, has updated its earnings forecast for the quarter ending March 31 to a level far below estimates. <\/p>\n

It did not say why it revised its guidance, but analysts reckon it is because of weak NAND flash demand.<\/font><\/p>\n

The new numbers miss by a wide margin. The company expects revenue for the period of up to $130m, with a $30m loss, compared to analysts’ estimates of $200m in revenue and a $16m loss. <\/p>\n

The global market for DRAM chips is expected to rise to $26,4bn this year, from $24,8bn last year, according to iSuppli.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is about that time of year again when users who need IT products with heavy memory chip content should stand by for bargains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}