14 DAY TRIAL // Apparently, even though DRAM makers may not be especially pleased with how things are going, makers of personal computers are unhappy with current memory prices and are demanding price cuts.
Those end-users that keep tabs on the various segments of the IT market may know that the memory industry has been going through more or less troubled times during the past quarter.
Over the past few months, the prices of DRAM chips have been going through changes which, depending on one's view, could be seen as both favorable and worrisome.
Basically, for the most part, DRAM prices have been steadily falling.
This has led to unease among makers of such chips, while PC OEMs and, of course, consumers have had only reasons for joy.
Now, a more recent report made by Digitimes states that DRAM prices fell even during the first half of November.
The main driving force behind this phenomenon was pressure placed by PC OEMs, which have been faced with oversupply of RAM.
Apparently, PC makers have been requesting that further price cuts be made in order to alleviate this issue as soon as possible.
No doubt companies are hoping that reduced prices, coupled with the dawning holiday shopping season, will help exhaust current inventories faster.
Either way, the oversupply situation is expected to last throughout the entire ongoing fourth quarter of 2010.
In fact, vendors are said to be expecting supply growth to stay ahead of the actual demand even through the first three-month period of 2011.
For those interested in numbers. quarterly supply growth is estimated at 14-15%, troublesome because the PC industry is not expected to show the same rate of expansion.
Granted, some ODMs did seem to get a better feel regarding their sales outlook for the next quarter, but sharper price drops will still continue until December.