Memory Prices... will they rise again

[love4god]

It seems that every year about this time memory prices go into the toilet. They get so low, but then later in the year they seems to skyrocket. I bought some cheap memory and I was going to get rid of it, but do you think I should wait. Last year I paid like $230 for 256MB of PC133 memory that I can now get for a quarter of that. But it seems like a seasonal cycle.

Does anyone know why this happens? And do you think it will happen again this year. I may just hold on to my memory hoping the prices heat up again. What do you think?

 

[MGMorden]

They went up last year b/c of an earthquake in Taiwan that damaged a lot of equipment and inventory. Barring stuff like that, memory will virtually never go up, and if it does it comes back down within a little bit. It's computer equipment, and like all computer equipment it just drops in price over time.

 

[ledzepp98]

in general there are seasonal cycles in supply and demand, but there are other factors driving down the price of pc133 ram...namely ddr ram and system prices as a whole. competition and the need to build ever cheaper computers have driven down the prices of almost everything, as well as newer technology gaining popularity. i don't forsee the prices of pc133 rising anytime soon, at least not significantly. i would imagine that at some point pc133 might be like SIMM ram in price and availability, but it will take quite a while before that happens

 

[thorin]

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Either something else in the industry is taking up the slack (I can't see anything) or prices will rebound and start to climb again. Some say "what goes up must come down", I say what goes down must come up. (This applies to everything in life: submarines, the titanic, pirate gold, etc...)

Thorin

 

[vi edit]

Another thing to remember is that PC sales are in the crapper. It's big OEM's like Dell, Gateway, HP and Compaq that can really push a market. When the big OEMs are pumping out the PC's left and right, there is a big demand for RAM. When there is a demand, there is a shortage, resulting in higher prices.

At this point in time, the OEMs are taking a beating. They are overstocked and are having troubles moving their inventory. Micron recently announced that it had to write off a big chunk of change because of depreciation of an overstocked inventory.

 

[YaKuZa]

<< Some say &quot;what goes up must come down&quot;, I say what goes down must come up. (This applies to everything in life: submarines, the titanic, pirate gold, etc...)

Thorin >>



How does &quot;what goes down must come up&quot; apply to the Titanic?

 

[thorin]

&quot;How does &quot;what goes down must come up&quot; apply to the Titanic? &quot;

They keep bring bits and pieces up and currently want to raise entire section(s) of the hull.

Thorin

 

[Midnight Rambler]

<< At this point in time, the OEMs are taking a beating. They are overstocked and are having troubles moving their inventory. Micron recently announced that it had to write off a big chunk of change because of depreciation of an overstocked inventory. >>

Very true, with the exception being DELL. DELL never has more than 5 days of inventory on hand for any component. DELL is saving itself in this PC price war by way of their excellent JIT system. No other big OEM is even close to DELL in this regard (JIT).

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

Something else to keep in mind...There is a lot of parallel between ram and cdr's. Production ran naked and screaming out the wazoo for a while to keep up with expected demand, now there may be some correction. While prices may rise, I sure hope they do not, I have been enjoying eating them for breakfast with my milk juice and toast for a nutritious start to my day.

 

[Miramonti]

Very true, with the exception being DELL. DELL never has more than 5 days of inventory on hand for any component. DELL is saving itself in this PC price war by way of their excellent JIT system. No other big OEM is even close to DELL in this regard (JIT).

Good for Dell of course but their suppliers have still gotten hammered with the inventories that they had expected to sell to Dell. Too bad manufacturers can't work a 5 day inventory!

I think prices will certainly go up later in the year because right now inventories are getting purged and also manufacturers don't want to lose market share now so they keep pumping ram out and at cheap prices. These dynamics definitely be shifting some later in the year. PC100 and 133 won't rebound all that much though because the newer technologies will continue to gain market share.