Memory Bulletin: DRAMs, NAND down

For the period from July 21 to July 28, spot prices for NAND flash-memories fell for the seventh consecutive week "and showed the steepest price decline during the previous seven weeks," according to Gartner Inc.

Spot prices fell by an average of 3.6 percent during the period, standing at $2.28 on a 1-gigabit (Gbit) equivalent basis, according to the market research firm. Prices for 4- and 8-Gbit parts fell 4.2 and 4.7 percent, respectively, during the period, according to Gartner.

"Demand continues to be seasonally soft, which, in addition to pre-emptive price declines initiated by SanDisk in the retail sector in July, is contributing the price declines," according to Gartner.

As previously reported, there is expected to be an "undersupply" of NAND in the fourth quarter due to huge anticipated demand, the firm said.

But this week, the market started off with a bang. SanDisk Corp., a leader in flash memory subsystems for imaging and audio storage, is acquiring one of its largest solid-state memory competitors, Msystems Ltd. of Israel, in a stock transaction worth approximately $1.35 billion.

Meanwhile, during the same period, "DRAM spot pricing was mixed," according to Gartner. DRAM spot prices fell by an average of 0.8 percent from the previous week, standing at $2.48 on a 256-megabit basis, according to the firm.

Prices for DDR1 parts were stable due to limited supply. DDR2 prices continue to fall due to lackluster demand, according to the research firm.