DDR4 Prices Increasing Over Smartphone Chip Demands

[Raevenlord]

While DDR4 prices have seen a continuous decline in pricing since May 2015 and hit their lowest value at around June of the current year, that trend has recently seen a reversal, with prices currently accelerating upwards. That may seem strange, since DDR4 never carried that much of a price premium over DDR3 (mainly on the back of a contracting PC market, the increasing popularity of mobile computing and other devices using slower but lower-powered memory, and the consolidation of the memory manufacturing marketplace), but you don't have to look very much away from your own devices for an answer as to why this is happening: smartphones.

Since the latest generations of smartphones have mostly been using DDR4 memory (such as the Galaxy S7, Google Pixel, Xiaomi phones as well as many other manufacturers' handsets), demand for increased amounts of DDR4 RAM has put a strain on the manufacturers' capabilities, leading them to put desktop-level DDR4 production on one the back burner, prioritizing mobile versions of it. And as you well know, supply and demand usually go hand in hand with pricing, as you can see from the images below, taken from PC Part Picker's pricing trends:





Consider the recent Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle, for example, and you can see how such an event can have veritable cascading consequences on the memory industry - after the initial recall, Samsung increased their orders of DDR4 memory, in a bid to accelerate production on replacement phones... Only to have them burst into flames as well. This initial strain on DDR4 manufacture has only been exacerbated as of late, due to multiple short-term orders of additional memory chips - with Samsung reportedly increasing production on their Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, and Apple looking to do the same with their iPhone 7, on the expectation of increased smartphone sales from disgruntled Note 7 buyers, either past or prospective.

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[FreedomEclipse]

heres the 'tsunami' of the DDR4 world guys. Prices are gonna ten fold. peoples gonna be start fighting each other for each others SSDs and graphics cards, ripping the ICs off them and soldering it on to their testicles and overclocking them. The second coming is coming and yall need some Jesus

 

[dorsetknob]

"The voice of Experience"

peoples gonna be start fighting each other for each others SSDs and graphics cards, ripping the ICs off them and soldering it on to their testicles and overclocking them

............

 

[xkm1948]

Glad I have already maxed out RAM when DDR4 was still cheap.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

eventually they will come down.. they will ramp up production and that will be that.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

eventually they will come down.. they will ramp up production and that will be that.

Naw man, thats not how it works... Samsung & the other IC makers are gonna cartel and keep prices artificially high for non legit reasons just so they can make a quick buck off you. a 1TB hard drive was selling for as much as £600 or 800 when the floods hit. the whole tsunami hard drive price thing was dragged out for at least a year or two... maybe even 3 years.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

Naw man, thats not how it works... Samsung & the other IC makers are gonna cartel and keep prices artificially high for non legit reasons just so they can make a quick buck off you. a 1TB hard drive was selling for as much as £600 or 800 when the floods hit. the whole tsunami hard drive price thing was dragged out for at least a year or two... maybe even 3 years.

well, yes. but eventually, they will come down again. i think in the next six months we will see them go down again.

 

[TheGuruStud]

well, yes. but eventually, they will come down again. i think in the next six months we will see them go down again.

They keep getting busted for price fixing, so price drops are basically only when there's insane supply. They're very mad about competition driving prices down.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

well, yes. but eventually, they will come down again. i think in the next six months we will see them go down again.

Its like hard drives. Back in the day you could buy a 3TB for a princely sum of $50 (i think...) The flood happened and prices skyrocketed because little to no hard drives were rolling off production lines and manufacturers were playing on their wounds saying they would need to buy new equipment, re-tool their entire factory etc etc all sorts of excuses regarding hard drive manufacturing just to keep the prices high. The day came when they were questioned about their prices... production was almost back to full steam and the prices were still stupidly high... then they came out with some excuse saying they needed to keep prices higher then previously because they let the prices drop way to far below what they thought was acceptable and it was unfair to them etc etc... Literally gave it all that song and dance about why they wanted to keep prices artificially inflated. Prices wont go down after 6 months because it makes them money. dont forget a world of things that need DDR4 to be made are still in production. mobilephones, laptops, tablets, graphic cards.... anything and everything where DDR4 is needed/used.

 

[RejZoR]

Glad I have already maxed out RAM when DDR4 was still cheap.

Same. With 32GB, I don't think I'll ever have the need to upgrade with this platform. Most likely till release of DDR5...

 

[Ubersonic]

well, yes. but eventually, they will come down again. i think in the next six months we will see them go down again.

People said that four years ago when RAM prices hit the moon, yet four years later they are still 50%+ higher.

 

[lorraine walsh]

LPDDR4 != DDR4.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

They keep getting busted for price fixing, so price drops are basically only when there's insane supply. They're very mad about competition driving prices down.

Its like hard drives. Back in the day you could buy a 3TB for a princely sum of $50 (i think...) The flood happened and prices skyrocketed because little to no hard drives were rolling off production lines and manufacturers were playing on their wounds saying they would need to buy new equipment, re-tool their entire factory etc etc all sorts of excuses regarding hard drive manufacturing just to keep the prices high. The day came when they were questioned about their prices... production was almost back to full steam and the prices were still stupidly high... then they came out with some excuse saying they needed to keep prices higher then previously because they let the prices drop way to far below what they thought was acceptable and it was unfair to them etc etc... Literally gave it all that song and dance about why they wanted to keep prices artificially inflated. Prices wont go down after 6 months because it makes them money. dont forget a world of things that need DDR4 to be made are still in production. mobilephones, laptops, tablets, graphic cards.... anything and everything where DDR4 is needed/used.

People said that four years ago when RAM prices hit the moon, yet four years later they are still 50%+ higher.

i checked the prices and yes they are a bit inflated, i don't think they will go much higher though. someone will complain if they do. this is why i generally don't trust companies to handle the market on they own.

 

[PLAfiller]

I am hoping for some good deals on the upcoming Black Friday sales.

 

[Ferrum Master]

LPDDR4 != DDR4.

Albeit manufacturing output prioritizes the first ones thus leaving other ones in deficit.