Screeech... DRAM! Weak demand hits memory-makers as they slam on CAPEX brakes – analyst

The three DRAM suppliers are scaling back production growth as memory demand falters with no sign of recovery. The DRAMeXchange research outfit has said annual DRAM capital expenditure (CAPEX) growth has gone negative for 2019 as Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron respond to weak seasonal demand in the first quarter and beyond. …

[Matt Ryan]

Perhaps dropping the price might help demand - plenty of fat in 80% margins for that.

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Crucial-CT2KIT102464BF160B-PC3L-12800-SODIMM-204-Pin/product/B007B5S52C

[Dacarlo]

Completely agree.

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Corsair-CMK64GX4M4A2400C14-Vengeance-Performance-Desktop/product/B016ORTP1M

Anywhere between £203 and £715 is a ridiculous variance even for a fairly large quantity of ram as 64Gig.

Perhaps they're skimming off of the money saved by every gamer buying Ryzen chips.

[Ammaross Danan]

100% think their weak sales is due to overpricing.

[thomas k]

Slowdown?

I just ordered 2x8GB Geil Evo Spear AMD edition.

[Anonymous Coward]

Until usage models of PCs & smartphones change

There won't be any pressing reason to upgrade the quantity of RAM they are currently sold with - at least not based on a potentially short term price drop. If the price of 4GB of LPDDR4 is cut in half so you can fit 8GB in a phone for the same price, you still have to pay for it in terms of reduced battery life due to the doubled active power. So that price cut will likely be taken as a lower BOM cost for the phone's manufacturer, not to add 4GB of likely-to-be unused RAM to a phone that doesn't benefit from it.

Because the problem is, if prices rise again you can't replace models that come with 8GB of RAM with models that come with only 4GB (doing so is easier in the PC market though) so you have to actually NEED the additional RAM. In the past, phones have had "too little", especially since as the operating systems and apps continued to expand to more PC like functionality you wanted to have some room for future growth when new OS/app versions were installed. They've pretty much reached that point now though, so just like the trajectory of RAM needs on PCs slowed greatly after Windows 7 shipped, the same is true in today's smartphone world.