Stamford, Conn. — Spot pricing for DRAMs was mixed last week with DDR3 parts edging downward, while DDR2 pricing headed up, reports Gartner Inc. Average spot pricing across all densities and technologies was up 0.5 percent — first increase in average price over the past two months — compared with the previous week, settling at $2.60 on a 1-Gb equivalent basis, according to the market research firm.
Gartner forecasts that DRAM revenue will increase 78 percent in 2010 to reach $40.9 billion, which is up from the research firm’s February 2010 forecast of 56 percent growth. The revised DRAM forecast of quarterly pricing trends for 2010 and 2011 also reveals that the primary reason for the upgrade is pricing. Gartner analysts have increased the average pricing from $2.15 to $2.56.
The new revenue forecast also marks the second highest revenue year for DRAM; only 1995 revenue was higher at $42.2 billion, said Gartner analysts. Overall bit demand was revised down to 50 percent.
Additional information about the supply-and-demand outlook is available in Gartner’s reports: “Forecast: DRAM Market Statistics, Worldwide, 2004-2014, 2Q10 Update,” (G00201091), and “Forecast: DRAM Supply and Demand, Worldwide, 1Q09-4Q11, 2Q10 Update,” (G00201096).
In the NAND market, Gartner is recommending that NAND vendors to aggressively push their 3-bits-per-cell and 2x nm technology as the market is projected to be in severe shortage in the third quarter.
Gartner analysts report that the volumes of 3-bits-per-cell technology have increased significantly over the past few weeks, prompting several of the online spot pricing exchange houses to start tracking the 3-bits-per cell technology separately.
