14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that the DRAM industry has had better years is already beyond doubt, especially now that companies that deal in such things are considering somewhat drastic measures in hopes of getting prices to recover at least a little.
Progress is usually a great thing, but it might just be that the DRAM industry has been going forward a bit too quickly.
Over the past couple of years, memory chip makers have been pushing the advancement to better manufacturing processes, also so that NAND chips would get better.
Unfortunately, this led to a rapid fill-up of inventories and, coupled with a consumer demand that left much to be desired, began to cause problems last year.
Ever since then, average selling prices have been on an almost constant decline and the few instances of recovery were hardly enough to stabilize things.
Basically, the average price of memory chips and, in turn, modules has gotten very low, to the point where PC makers now consider 4 GB to be the standard specification.
That being said, prices fell not long ago, again, even though it was previously reported that the decision had been taken to not let them slide any lower anymore.
Apparently, the intention still exists, even if the means to achieve it is the equivalent of trading one evil for another, so to speak.
According to Digitimes, DRAM makers, at least those from Taiwan, are thinking of reducing the production capacity, hoping this will finally prompt prices to inflate again.
Of course, this might not really help to alleviate all the losses incurred so far, although there are precedents, like in 2009 and even further back, in late 2008, when falling PC demand and ASPs were taking their toll.
Just what the exact effects this decision, if it is taken, will be remains to be seen.