Underperforming phone- and tabletmarkets impact NAND-prices

Impacted by the 2H11 global economy, European, American and Japanese markets showed little progress in recovery and China, affected by inflation, showed a decrease in consumer purchasing power. Except for some renowned Smartphone vendors, most of other Smartphone makers will likely to suffer from a weaker demand in 2Q11. As for tablet market, non-iPad makers such as Acer, Asus, RIM and Samsung launched their tablet products despite iPad 2’s launches outside of the United States in 2Q11. It intensified the tablet competition. With the software/hardware market remained yet fully developed, critical components such as touch panel and camera sensors supply remains tight and the poor sales of non-iPad tablets, resulted in an lower NAND Flash consumption in system products. Meanwhile, retail memory card and UFD market are facing a weak customer demand. According to our research on various module houses, current NAND Flash inventory level are piling up given the poor sales. Toward quarter-end and during off-season venders are in general more conservative toward restocking. DRAMeXchange expects short-term NAND Flash contract price will continue to be weak and price will be determined by the demand, launch of new products and the traditional memory card and UFD sales season in August.