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PCs STILL GOBBLE UP LION'S SHARE OF DRAMSUPPLY


Despite the roaring growth of tablets, PCs including laptops,


desktops and servers still consume themajority of DRAMsupply By Gina Roos


Industry players agree that several keymarkets including smart phones, tablets and servers are driving DRAMdemand this year. Although tablets are considered the "sexy" part of demand, with the highest growth rate, it's still a small portion of the DRAMmarket.


In the context of the overall DRAMmarket, tablets consume


only 20 percent of the total market, saidMike Howard, principal analyst for DRAMand memory, IHS iSuppli in El Segundo, Calif. "There is still this huge segment called PCs -- laptops, desktops and servers -- that consumes 60 percent of the bits, but tablets are where the growth is within DRAM. It's where all the new devices are coming from."


"We think the PC segment is a slowly shrinking portion of the


market but even in our five-year forecast it's still 55 to 60 percent of themarket," Howard said.


Howard says to look to laptops for growth. Just as a formfactor it


has outshipped desktops for about 12 to 18months and it continues to grow where desktops are a flat segment.


They also are all using DDR3 DRAM, which has outshipped DDR2


on a bit basis starting in the first two quarters of last year, followed by a price crossover in the third and fourth quarters, Howard said.


"DDR3 is the cheapest bit out there now and that's where all of


the lithographic shrink attention is being paid by themanufacturers," Howard said.


Thanks to cloud computing and virtualization there is also big


demand for DRAMs in the servermarket. On the servermarket, particularly in the data center, Samsung


sees "huge growth" because of the proliferation of cloud computing, but also sees growth on themobile side for smart phones and tablets, said Pablo Temprano, director,Memory ProductMarketing, at Samsung Semiconductor, Inc., San Jose, Calif. "That growth is really driving high demand for DRAM."


"PC demand also is a big driving factor for DRAM, but whether


we get it froma server, tablet, notebook, smart phone or desktop we have a home for our bits [DRAM], said Temprano.


4 |March 2011 "Mostmemory suppliers are trying tomanage their productmix


betweenmobilememory for smart phones and tablets, registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) for servers and small-outline DIMMs (SODIMMs) and unbuffered DIMMs (UDIMMs) for PCs and even graphics memory for video cards and gaming consoles, said Temprano.


"The good news for Samsung is that we have a very strong


productmix and a one-stop shop," he added. Samsung holds the biggest share of the DRAMmarket. DRAM


revenue for Samsung in the fourth quarter of 2010 totaled $3.6 billion, tallying a 41.7 percent share of the $8.7 billionmarket, according to IHS iSuppli.


And despite a revenue drop in the fourth quarter, also shared by


all DRAMcompanies, Samsung's share rose 1 percentage point compared to the third quarter, when the totalmarket revenue reached $10.7 billion, according to IHS iSuppli. The revenue decline was the result of average selling prices (ASPs) fallingmore than 28 percent in the fourth quarter.


The closest competitor, Hynix Semiconductor, at No. 2, has held


approximately 22.0 percentmarket share for eight consecutive quarters, said themarket researcher. ElpidaMemory Inc., ranked No. 3, suffered the biggest drop in revenue in the fourth quarter, down 35 percent to $1.1 billion and a 13.0 percent share.


Another fourth quarter winner cited by IHS includesMicron


Technology Inc., ranked No. 4, whose revenue fell only 3 percent for the period. Themarket researcher attributes this to significant shipments being counted fromits stake in Taiwan's Inotera Memories.Micron held a 12.5 percentmarket share in the fourth quarter, up from10.5 percent in the third quarter.


Nanya, likeMicron, takes shipments from its stake in Inotera,


and Elpida brands DRAMmade by rival Powerchip as its own, said IHS iSuppli.


Formore on the DRAMmarket, read the article "It's a buyer's market," pages 16-20.


www.electronics-sourcing.com


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