While prices of DRAM memory chips continue to drop as the market shrinks, NAND flash memory chips could bottom out before year-end.

Both types of chips store programs and data in personal computers, servers, smartphones and other digital gadgets. But DRAM, which has been widely used in PCs, loses its data once the power is turned off. NAND, found in smartphones, does not.

Consumer electronics retailers on a typical weekday amply illustrate the trouble that DRAM is in. Their smartphone sections bustle, and their personal computer sections are quiet. As people turn to smartphones and abandon PCs, demand for DRAM chips has sagged.

Among DRAMs, the 4-gigabit DDR3 memory module, the current mainstream product for use in PCs, now sells to large-lot users for around $1.89. That is only around half the going price of a year ago, and no end to the slide seems to be in sight.

In NAND, ties between supply and demand began unraveling faster last year as growth in China's smartphone market cooled. A 64-gigabit multilevel-cell NAND chip now costs $2.25, down 15% from the same month a year ago.

Prices continue to edge down for both types of memory chips. But most pundits agree with Akira Minamikawa, senior analyst at U.S. market research firm IHS, who believes that NAND will likely stage a price recovery sooner than DRAM.

Underpinning the NAND market is the vigorous pace at which solid-state drives -- fast-booting storage devices that use flash memory rather than magnetic media -- are replacing hard disks in PCs and servers.

By: DocMemory
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