Kingston sees smartphone and 3D TV as catalyst for future DRAM Tweet

Sales of DRAM chips will remain bullish in the second half of 2010, thanks to increased demand from the smartphones, 3D TVs and other new applications, according to David Sun, co-founder of Kingston Technology. The smartphones and other new applications are expected to challenge PCs as the dominant segment in the memory market.

High-density mobile RAMs now feature up to 2Gb, equivalent to the memory content per PC, Sun indicated. The smartphone market as well as other non-PC applications are consuming a great amount of DRAM capacity, paving the way for the DRAM industry's sustainable growth, Sun added.

Sun also predicts the DRAM industry will see a supply-demand balance, or even shortages, in the second half of 2010. In addition to brisk demand, some DRAM producers' ongoing technology transitions are limiting growth in supply.

In response to Samsung Electronics' projected chip capex for 2010, Sun commented that the big player targets a wider range of end-market applications. He believes the vendor is unlikely to aggressively expand its DRAM capacity as such a move would plunge prices and hurt its profitability.

In addition, Sun expressed optimism about the market for solid-state drives (SSDs). Sun said SSDs accounted for less than 1% of Kingston's total capacity for NAND flash products in 2009, but the proportion is expected to reach 10% in 2010.

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