Are you planning to buy a new SSD or expand your RAM? Then it probably pays to wait a little longer. Prices for RAM and SSDs could drop in record time, due to an oversupply of products using NAND and DRAM memory. This is evident from several reports.
According to a report by DRAMeXchange, the price could drop by 10% this year and the decline is expected to continue in the first quarter of 2021. In the first half of this year, prices rose by 5% to 10%.
“Despite the seasonal spike for electronics sales and the launch of new iPhones in the third quarter of this year, the average price for flash memory is likely to drop by 10% as demand for it plunged due to the corona crisis,” the report said. Read DRAMeXchange report.
DigiTimes also reports that the prices of memory chips, including NAND and DRAM, are expected to fall by 10% in the fourth quarter and even further in the first half of 2021.
Supply and demand
The reason for the price decrease has to do with supply and demand. There is too much supply on the memory market and manufacturers of memory chips are no longer investing in it. Western Digital and Micron, for example, are two companies that have already announced that they will invest less.
According to a Deutsche Bank analyst, electronics manufacturers, as well as stores, stocked up on hard drives, RAM and memory cards en masse at the start of the corona crisis because of fears of shortages. They now have so much in stock that they have to lower prices to get rid of it.
Moreover, developments in the memory market are moving fast, making the current oversupply in the memory market also quickly outdated. This will accelerate the price decline of RAM and SSDs in the fourth quarter, according to DRAMeXchange. A price drop of 15% in the coming months seems imminent.
Cheaper laptops and PCs?
Cheaper flash memory immediately reduces production costs for RAM and SSDs, which translates into a lower price for components. Laptop and PC manufacturers also benefit from this. Because they can provide their laptops or PCs with memory in a cheaper way, it cannot be ruled out that the prices of laptops and desktops will fall somewhat.
It can therefore pay to wait a while before purchasing a PC or SSD. You may be able to look forward to hefty discounts on sales days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November.
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