The signs of falling RAM prices were already very clear recently; analysts have now recognized it and see room for improvement. It is interesting that it does not only affect individual market areas, but could see almost every segment falling prices across the board.
Spot prices long-term prices are
About three weeks ago, the ComputerBase editorial team summarized the developments on the storage exchange in Asia, where the lowest price in seven months was indicated. Since then, this price has remained almost unchanged, with a slightly continuing downward trend, so that the spot price is no longer just a short-term phenomenon, but also takes shape for long-term contracts with OEMs and ODMs. This is exactly where the analyzes of the market researchers come in, who now see this as a further trend for the fourth quarter starting next week.
Market researchers expect a price reduction of up to ten percent in the classic PC area, including notebooks. Because here the demand should slowly decrease, which is why the inventory at the OEMs increases significantly, which in turn leads to lower demand on their part and thus falling prices. But the high-margin business with servers is also affected, for the first time this year. Here it recently looked like constant growth and the need for more and more storage, but that too is cooling down a bit. Price increases are no longer in sight, rather the opposite.
Only in the area of memory for smartphones do the analysts expect no major changes, although here the sideways movement instead of an increase has recently also been an initial trend towards improvement. This also applies to graphics memory, which has recently become steadily more expensive, but now also does not increase any further and, ideally, could even be slightly cheaper.
Schnell Effects especially with PC memory
When this will show up, as with products in retail in this country, is always difficult to predict. The prices for RAM for smartphones and graphics cards have little influence on the overall product; other factors play a much larger role here. The quickest way to see changes is in classic RAM, which is quickly transferred to retail. There, the behavior of the last three weeks is just as it is on the stock market: The sideways movement at a stable, favorable level is here, although the very low prices of the previous year have not yet been reached.
Memory price for DDR4-3200 within one year (picture: price comparison)