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sprite0022
yeah, i forget, it still keep half of Utah output...
cook450
Intel is in the Nand business. JV with Micron.
Stability at last in DRAM market?
Tam Harbert
11/12/2012 1:11 PM EST
Samsung sitting pretty
By the end of next year, the DRAM industry will have shrunk to only three major players, says Howard: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. While there are other DRAM makers, they don't own the technology and have to license it from these three, he notes. The DRAM manufacturers in Taiwan, for example, are still hanging on. "They just refuse to go out of business."
The DRAM vendor in the best position is Samsung, which has about 40 percent of the overall DRAM market and 60 percent of the mobile DRAM market, according to Howard. It also has a stable customer -- itself, in Samsung Mobile. Hynix SK has 22 to 24 percent of the overall DRAM market and 22 to 24 percent of the mobile DRAM market. Micron historically had about 13 percent of the overall DRAM market and only 4 percent of mobile DRAM. It is fixing that by acquiring Elpida, which has about 20 percent of the mobile DRAM market.
With the right balance of PC DRAM, mobile DRAM, and specialty DRAM, these companies should be in a more stable market. All three of them also make NAND flash as well. And even though NAND is made in different fabs, "if they feel there's way too much capacity in DRAMs, they could transition those fabs to produce NAND," according to Howard.
In some ways, the NAND market has the elasticity of the old DRAM market, in the sense that OEMs can always stuff more memory into their products. That's particular true for the solid-state drive market, notes Howard. On the other hand, the mobile device market doesn't have that flexibility. Once a smartphone or tablet is designed, it's not so simple to just add more NAND memory.
Nevertheless, "the elasticity component of the DRAM market is shrinking [as the PC market shrinks], whereas the elasticity component of the NAND market is growing."
Taken together, these factors should help the remaining memory companies build a better business future. "They aren't out of the woods yet, but long-term I think the industry is going to be a lot healthier," Howard adds. By 2014, "we anticipate this being a tidy, profitable industry."
Tam Harbert is a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. This article originally appeared on EBN, an EE Times sister site.
Related stories:
By the end of next year, the DRAM industry will have shrunk to only three major players, says Howard: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. While there are other DRAM makers, they don't own the technology and have to license it from these three, he notes. The DRAM manufacturers in Taiwan, for example, are still hanging on. "They just refuse to go out of business."
The DRAM vendor in the best position is Samsung, which has about 40 percent of the overall DRAM market and 60 percent of the mobile DRAM market, according to Howard. It also has a stable customer -- itself, in Samsung Mobile. Hynix SK has 22 to 24 percent of the overall DRAM market and 22 to 24 percent of the mobile DRAM market. Micron historically had about 13 percent of the overall DRAM market and only 4 percent of mobile DRAM. It is fixing that by acquiring Elpida, which has about 20 percent of the mobile DRAM market.
With the right balance of PC DRAM, mobile DRAM, and specialty DRAM, these companies should be in a more stable market. All three of them also make NAND flash as well. And even though NAND is made in different fabs, "if they feel there's way too much capacity in DRAMs, they could transition those fabs to produce NAND," according to Howard.
In some ways, the NAND market has the elasticity of the old DRAM market, in the sense that OEMs can always stuff more memory into their products. That's particular true for the solid-state drive market, notes Howard. On the other hand, the mobile device market doesn't have that flexibility. Once a smartphone or tablet is designed, it's not so simple to just add more NAND memory.
Nevertheless, "the elasticity component of the DRAM market is shrinking [as the PC market shrinks], whereas the elasticity component of the NAND market is growing."
Taken together, these factors should help the remaining memory companies build a better business future. "They aren't out of the woods yet, but long-term I think the industry is going to be a lot healthier," Howard adds. By 2014, "we anticipate this being a tidy, profitable industry."
Tam Harbert is a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. This article originally appeared on EBN, an EE Times sister site.
Related stories:
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resistion
11/12/2012 4:42 PM EST
Mobile DRAM is portrayed here as a niche, when actually it has big risk of becoming the next commodity.
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sprite0022
11/12/2012 7:14 PM EST
if intel keeps loosing cpu business, it might enter-reenter Nand business.
keep it noted...
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cook450
11/13/2012 8:33 PM EST
Intel is in the Nand business. JV with Micron.
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sprite0022
11/15/2012 3:46 AM EST
yeah, i forget, it still keep half of Utah output...
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