The latest report from DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, finds that NAND flash prices fell rapidly in the third quarter, resulting in a mere 2.4% quarterly increase in the global NAND Flash revenue. Sean Yang, assistant vice president of DRAMeXchange, said demand was uncharacteristically weak in the third quarter and did not adhere to the seasonal pattern.
Though DRAM prices continue to fall, mobile DRAM has been more resistant to price decline than other memory products. With the bit supply increasing, mobile memory accounted for 40% of the total DRAM revenue in the third quarter, and its share of the revenue is expected to keep expanding. According to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, mobile DRAM revenue increased by 18% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.
Led by state-backed conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup, which has accelerated its investments in NAND Flash manufacturers, the Chinese semiconductor sector is set to play a pivotal role in the global NAND Flash industry as it is close to completing this particular industry chain.
The average selling price of DRAM continues to decline due to market oversupply. However, manufacturers are reallocating production capacity from PC DRAM – which has experienced the greatest price decline – to server DRAM and mobile DRAM as the latter two application markets are seeing more stable prices and higher margins. This strategy, along with continuing bit supply growth, prevented the global DRAM industry from suffering a significant revenue loss in the third quarter.
With the peak period for smartphone shipments arriving, Apple’s iPhone 6s and a host of latest flagship devices from other branded vendors have been made available on the market. Global research firm TrendForce estimates that around 345.9 million smartphones will be shipped this fourth quarter, up 3.7% from the third quarter.