DDR2 prices to increase in August

ANALYST OUTFIT DRAMeXchange is predicting that the price for DDR2 will increase in August as there is a supply shortfall of 10-20 percent.

The market watchers said that the reason is that industry players are starting to prepare for the release of Vista. The current "basic" memory density is 512MB DRAM and the memory-hungry Vista OS should spur demand further, the outfit says.

So far PC OEMs have managed to negotiate price cuts of between three and five percent for DDR2 and this has offset some of the hikes in price which have been seen since February.

DRAMeXchange expects DDR2 supply should trail demand by 10-20 percent by September or October. It is advising customers to begin increasing their inventory levels before prices rise.

Solid demand for DDR should also persist through September and then a drop in both supply and demand may stabilise prices, the outfit says. µ