In the third quarter, we anticipate a weaker-than-expected recovery in demand for PC DRAM due to lackluster back-to-school orders and intensifying competition.
On the components business side, demand for PC DRAM remained weak but growth of high value-added products such as server and mobile DRAM was constant due to increased sales of mobile devices.
ENGADGET: Samsung reports $8.27 billion in profits for Q4 2012 HD
Weak global demand for PC DRAM chips still weighed on Samsung's push for a recovery, although it responded to increased orders for server and mobile DRAM and hastened migration to the 30-nanometer and below process.
Looking into the second quarter, Samsung expects to improve profitability in the chip business with a recovery in PC DRAM price and by expanding its new product category with mobile application processors based on 32 nanometer-class process technology.
Weaker-than-expected off-peak season demand and a global supply crunch of HDDs coupled with low demand for PC DRAM chips and the oversupply of mobile DRAM impacted profit margins, in which the memory portion saw its revenue slip to 4.89 trillion won.
Signs of increasing DRAM content per PC given recent low pries.
FORBES: Micron: UBS Upgrades; Gets On The DRAM Bull Bandwagon
While PC growth has slowed down, DRAM bit shipments in networking were up 20% compared to Q1 2013 and we estimate the proportion to rise in the future.
In the fourth quarter, demand for PC memory will remain weak but DRAM for mobile devices and servers is projected to keep growing with the introduction of new products and a boom in the smartphone business.
ENGADGET: Samsung's Q3 2011 overall profit falls despite incredible phone sales
As Van Hees notes, the company blamed the weak results in part on soft DRAM demand from the consumer PC market.
Mike Howard, principle DRAM analyst for DRAM and memory at iSuppli, said in a statement that the soft DRAM pricing reflects both weaker PC demand and greater supply.
FORBES: DRAM Prices Collapsing; Good News For PC Makers (And Buyers)
Profitability in DRAM remained weak despite growth in global PC shipments in the high-single digit percentage quarter-on-quarter and a push in sales of mobile and server DRAM.
ENGADGET: Samsung's Q3 2011 overall profit falls despite incredible phone sales
Devitt sees overall 2013 semi capital spending to be down 10%-15% from 2012, with no meaningful capacity investment in the memory sector this year, with DRAM spending likely muted due to weak PC fundamentals.
FORBES: Applied Materials: J.P. Morgan Turns Bearish On Weak Capex
Considering the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets, we expect mobile devices to account for a higher proportion of DRAM sales in the future and estimate the rapid growth in mobile devices to accelerate DRAM shipments despite a slowdown in the PC market.
FORBES: Why Growth In Mobile Devices Will Fuel Micron's DRAM Shipments
The slowdown in PC shipments, combined with intense competition and macro headwinds, has placed DRAM market in oversupply.
FORBES: Why Growth In Mobile Devices Will Fuel Micron's DRAM Shipments
While the PC market remains weak, we think an increase in demand for mobile DRAM products and a reduction in excess capacity in the market would stabilize selling prices in the future.
That's because DRAM, like an amnesiac, forgets everything it knows each time the PC is shut down.
That said, PC Perspective has put in some quality time with the DDRdrive X1, which places 4GB DRAM and 4GB NAND in parallel on a full height PCIe card, keeping that volatile memory of yours safely backed up on a static disk, just in case.
He also noted that chip factory utilization rates have declined to slightly below-seasonal levels, and that contract prices for both DRAM and NAND memory chips are expected to drop in Q3, due to weak PC and smartphone demand.
FORBES: Trouble For Chip Equipment Stocks: Novellus Q3 View Whiffs
The J PC runs a Core 2 Duo or Athlon 64 FX, Windows Vista Ultimate, 8GB of DRAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 768MB of RAM, 2TB of 7, 200 SATA storage, Blu-ray or HD DVD drive and plenty more trimmings like a 7-inch built-in screen, TV tuner and 7.1-channel sound.
ENGADGET: Moneual for a million: Jewelry PC demands dramatic pricetag
And while DRAM is strong enough to handle complex software, it's slow: When the PC needs to crunch numbers, it must resort to far faster memory cache, also called SRAM (static random access memory).
应用推荐