DRAM Prices May Actually Rebound in 2011

Posted 01/21/2011 at 8:13am | by Paul Lilly

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We've been closely following the plight of memory makers, most of which haven't had much reason to celebrate in a long, long time. Underscoring just how bad the situation has become, OCZ, a major memory vendor and pioneer in the enthusiast memory market, recently announced it was accelerating plans to phase out its RAM business to focus on the more profitable (and stable) SSD market.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, albeit still dim. DRAMeXchange says that while prices are likely to remain flat or drop a little bit for the rest of the month, prices could start to recover in the second quarter, DigiTimes reports.

That's good news for DRAM makers, who so far in 2011 have seen prices for 2GB DDR3 modules fall 5-6 percent to just $17. Prices did slide at a slower rate compared to previous declines of 10 percent, but that could just be a sign that the market is nearing rock bottom.

As we've said before, the upshot to all this is that OEM system builders have started equipping their rigs with more RAM, with 4GB (and higher) quickly becoming the norm.