Global DRAM module sales totaled around US$7.9 billion in 2015, down 10.4% from US$8.8 billion a year earlier, according to DRAMeXchange.

The sales decline in 2015 was caused mainly by falling PC DRAM prices and a shrinking DIY (Do It Yourself) market, said DRAMeXchange.

"The DRAM industry was hit hard by the oversupply problem in the PC market through 2015," said Avril Wu, research director of DRAMeXchange. "Microsoft's attempt to factor in the amount of memory in a PC to the calculation of Windows 10 license fee also made the situation worse. There was no significant growth in the consumption of PC DRAM, and notebooks' average DRAM content per box even dropped 1% compared with the previous year."

DRAM prices "on the whole were on a downtrend in 2015," Wu continued. During the year, spot market prices had larger falls compared with contract price markets. "DRAM module makers were the first to face the impact of falling spot prices," Wu noted.

The top-5 DRAM module companies accounted for as much as 87% of the global revenues, DRAMeXchange indicated. These major vendors are expected to gain even greater market shares in the future, DRAMeXchange said.

Kingston Technology continued to dominate the DRAM module market in 2015 with a 68.36% share, DRAMeXchange indicated. Despite falling prices for PC DRAM, Kingston managed to grow its DRAM module revenues by 3.85% in 2015.

"Due to the contraction of the spot market, DRAM module makers had to find new blue ocean opportunities to maintain their revenues in 2015," Wu noted. "Kingston focused on the smartphone market in 2015 after finding success in the contract market in the year before. Kingston is now very active in e-sport/gaming market and has been quick to seize emerging market trends for DRAM modules."

Other module makers are either looking at strategic products or adjusting their portfolios to give more weight to NAND flash-related products, DRAMeXchange said. High-margin and niche market segments that DRAM module makers are going to pay more attention to in the near future include industrial applications, e-sport/gaming and overclocking communities.

By: DocMemory
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