It was not very long ago that DRAM makers were in hot waters with increasing supplies that left prices freefalling. The reason was the slow sales of desktop and laptop computers.
It was only after the memory makers put a cap on production did the decline stop late last year, and prices started to rebound.
Even though the traditional PCs are still suffering from slow sales, analysts have now pegged the mobile segment to bring some much needed momentum this year. In fact, most believe that 2013 could see a meteoritic rise in demand of memory modules.
The reason? Why, the increased emphasis on tablets and smartphones, of course.
According to DigiTimes Research, tablets and smartphones are set to cause a rise of 72.9 percent in mobile DRAM modules, which in turn will lift the overall DRAM demand to jump by 30 percent.
The increasing capabilities of smartphones are set to give way to the handsets using more and more memory. ARM chips or not, they do require plenty of RAM, after all.
Gone are the days when Microsoft’s mobile platform, Windows Phone, was happy with 256 or 512 MB of memory. Average DRAM in smartphones is set to expand to 0.9 GB this year — up from 0.7 GB in 2012. A marked increase!
Tablets also look to set to take the memory world by storm. Several new hardware vendors are set to jump into the tablet arena this year, while others look to expand their tablet families. Other popular hardware makers, still, will bring around new models of their slates for the year.
Microsoft is rumored to introduce several new models to expand its Surface lineup of devices.
The increased emphasis on mobile computing looks all set to offset the slump memory manufacturers suffered from last year. Fingers crossed, DRAM makers can keep up, and expand their production facilities accordingly.
The last thing we need is memory shortage issues as mobile devices take center stage.
