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Media Tablet to drive DRAM demand up
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Monday, June 13, 2011
The boom in media tablets is expected to lead to growing demand for DRAM in coming years, particularly if bookseller Amazon.com Inc. throws its hat in the ring, as has been widely rumored, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli.
DRAM demand for media tablets will rise by a factor of nine in 2011 compared to 2010, thanks to booming iPad sales and the arrival of competing products, according to a new report by the market research firm.
The IHS report predicts that tablets will consume exponentially more DRAM in the years ahead, particularly if bookseller Amazon introduces its own tablet to rival iPad, as has been rumored. Published reports speculate that Amazon is preparing to launch its own Android-based tablet, though there is wide disparity over when that might actually happen.
Tablets will consume 333.7 million gigabits of DRAM this year, up from 37.3 million gigabits in 2010, according to IHS. DRAM demand from tablets is expected to rise to 1.1 billion gigabits in 2012 and continue to climb by leaps and bounds during the next four years, reaching 5.8 billion gigabits by 2015, according to the firm.
Tablet shipments this year are projected to reach 63.2 million units, up from 17.5 million in 2010, and will hit 113.9 million units next year, according to IHS.
"Because of their soaring shipments, tablets are gaining increasing prominence in the DRAM market," said Mike Howard, principal analyst for DRAM and memory at HIS, in a statement. "The iPad, which has single-handedly dominated the tablet business since its introduction last year, will account for the bulk of the DRAM demand in the market in 2011 and the following years. However, competition to the iPad is seeping into the market, driving further DRAM demand."
In a separate report released Thursday, IHS said the market for embedded NOR flash memory is expected to grow 8 percent in 2011, thanks to demand from devices like Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle e-reader. Shipments of NOR memory chips for embedded applications in 2011 are set to rise to 3.96 billion units, up from 3.64 billion units in 2010, IHS said. The firm projects stable growth for embedded NOR of 7 to 9 percent each year for the next five years, with embedded NOR shipments climbing to 5.41 billion units in 2015.
Competitors to the iPad now on market now include the Galaxy Tab from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the Xoom from Motorola Mobility Inc., the PlayBook from Research In Motion Ltd. and the TouchPad from Hewlett-Packard Co. According to IHS, none of these entrants have seriously endangered the dominance of the iPad.
A a new competitive tablet device from Amazon could represent the most serious challenge yet for the iPad, potentially driving even more DRAM demand, IHS said.
"Unofficial reports of a new tablet device being readied by Amazon to go head to head with the iPad bodes nothing but good news for the dynamic random access memory market," Howard said.
IHS maintains that Amazon's aptitude for delivering a satisfactory customer experience is well-known, and the firm's analysts believe that an Amazon tablet would compete on user experience—not necessarily on hardware specs. But, while Amazon has built an e-commerce empire to be envied and succeeded in bringing the popular Kindle e-reader to market, there is no guarantee that an Android-based tablet would necessarily offer a better overall user experience than other Android-based tablets.
With DRAM content in the Amazon tablet expected to be robust—estimated to be 4 gigabits per device, similar to the iPad 2—tablet DRAM demand is likely to remain a bright spot for the memory industry in the years ahead, according to IHS.
By: DocMemory
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