Computer Memory Price Declines Further

This summer was a very bad time for the manufacturing companies that are active in the production of both computer memory chips and NAND flash based non-volatile memory solutions, as price tags fluctuated widely, with a general tendency of pointing downward. One of the most important computer and NAND memory chip making company, Micron Technology, announced a quarterly loss as the company was hit by a massive price decline for products used in general consumer, multimedia and personal computers.

According to the news site zdnet, the company said that the average selling prices for computer and NAND flash memory chips fell about 15 percent when compared with the previous quarter and so this price decline meant a big loss for the manufacturer. Micron Technology posted a net loss of $158 million or around 21 cents per share, over the same period a year earlier when the company registered a gain of $64 million or around 8 cents per share.

The loss comes after the company did manage to increase its total revenues from $1.37 billion to $1.44 billion over the same time frame. While DRAM memory chips that are most widely used as either system random access memory or as graphics memory modules registered a price decline of 10 percent, the price tag of the NAND flash based memory chips fell with about 40 percent.

Micron Technology stated that the general price tag decline for NAND memory chips comes after many manufacturing companies, including itself, upgraded their production lines and increase their capacity. This almost global move toward new production technologies made by most important companies led to a big increase in the overall number of NAND flash based memory chips that simply flooded the market and prompted a big price drop.

Until now, the Micron Technology shares have declined by 18 percent, while the shares of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, of which Micron is a constituent, rose by a slight 8 percent.