iSuppli: Mobile DRAM Market Expands as Usage Increases in Smartphones and Tablets Aug 7, 2012 – Ryan Chien
With its relatively robust market growth and increasing usage in hot
products like smartphones and media tablets, mobile DRAM is playing a more
prominent role in the memory business—including acting as a key factor
in Micron Technology Inc.’s recent acquisition of Elpida Memory
Inc.
Mobile DRAM is set to hit a record $6.56 billion in revenue this year,
up 10 percent from $5.98 billion in 2011, according to anIHS iSuppli Mobile & Embedded Memory Market Brieffrom information and analysis provider IHS. (NYSE: IHS).This compares
to 3 percent revenue growth for standard DRAM.
“The mobile DRAM segment is achieving impressive growth as mobile
operating systems, streaming apps and games require more memory to handle
sophisticated tasks,” said Ryan Chien, analyst for memory & storage
at IHS. “Crucial features like multitasking, media decoding and
decompression, data synchronization and background operations are all driving
DRAM needs—and new phones and tablets are meeting those needs with
their rise in mobile DRAM densities.”
Mobile DRAM is a low-power DRAM variant currently preferred for use in
mobile applications.
A Date with Density
Dissections conducted by the IHS iSuppli
Teardown Analysis Service also confirm a stunning rise in average
densities of mobile DRAM in wireless devices.
Mobile DRAM density in smartphones, for instance, jumped from 2.28
gigabits (Gb) in the second quarter of 2010 to 5.85 Gb in the second quarter
this year. The expansion is even greater in tablets, with the mobile DRAM
average density soaring fourfold during the same period from 2.00 Gb to 8.33
Gb, as shown in the figure below.
Mobile DRAM v. regular DRAM
The extraordinary accomplishment of mobile DRAM is in
marked contrast to the performance of the other memory segments, including
standard DRAM used in desktop and notebook computers. Owing to the lagging
sales of PC computing behind handsets and tablets, revenue growth for
standard DRAM this year is anticipated to be weak.
And while mobile DRAM average selling prices have been falling over
time in line with the overall memory space, prices remain relatively firm for
mobile DRAM chips because of a number of factors, including high demand, a
smaller supply base and healthy density growth.
Elpida’s Mobile DRAM Treasure
The importance of mobile DRAM is also clear in the
acquisition in July by U.S. memory maker Micron of Elpida, its insolvent
Japanese rival. While both companies earned similar DRAM revenue in the first
quarter this year—$759 million for Micron and $780 for Elpida—the
mobile DRAM revenue of Elpida at $218 million was double that the $106
million for Micron.
“Such a disparity between the acquired and the buyer highlights a
competitive differentiator for Elpida, Chien said.
“Despite its financial ruin, Elpida in the first quarter had an
outsized portion—nearly 20 percent market share—of the total
mobile DRAM industry revenue of $1.8 billion. The increasing ubiquity of
mobile DRAM projected for the next few years also makes the high-flying
memory segment the most important factor in Micron’s $2.5 billion
purchase, especially as the Boise, Idaho, outfit aims to counter the current
market dominance of the South Korean giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix
Semiconductor.”
Given the power efficiency and increasing affordability of mobile DRAM,
its importance to the ecosystemof mobile devices cannot be
overstated. Mobile DRAM will also continue to become more efficient, enabling
superior product functionality and an even larger total available market in
the future, with its use in new ultrathin computers a natural next
step.
