Electronic News: Semico Releases DRAM Forecast

Electronic News
Phoenix, AZ August 13, 2004

http://www.reed-electronics.com/electronicnews/article/CA444898?text=semico

Thanks to the success of “non-brand” or “white box” PCs, the term generic has taken on new meaning and is no longer considered the poor man’s brand of choice in this industry, according to Semico Research.

The “white box” PC market has expanded with new market opportunities and changes in performance versus cost demand, while the importance of white box producers is set to increase to DRAM vendors as new players, such as OEMs, enter the market, the Phoenix, Ariz.-based market research firm also said.

As a result, PC popularity has imparted its golden touch and become the volume driver for the DRAM market, with 54 percent of the megabits shipped this year to go into PCs -- 256Mbit DDR SDRAM leading the way. This is particularly interesting to note since many thought that SDRAM would lose shelf space, Semico said, assisted by 3G cellular phone demand for SDRAM.

Semico maintained its forecast that the PC industry would recover during this period as the economy improves, with a mild downturn predicted for next year. The DRAM market has felt the positive effects with monthly revenue in February up 77 percent over 2003, the firm reported.

© 2004, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About Semico
Semico Research Corp is a marketing and engineering research company located in Phoenix, Arizona. Semico was founded in 1994 by a group of semiconductor industry veterans who believed that the validity of semiconductor product forecasts could be greatly improved if the forecasts were based on semiconductor consumption in end-use markets. Semico forecasts, today, are based on that idea. Corporate Headquarters: P.O. Box 9850 Phoenix, AZ 85068-9850 Tel: 602-997-0337 Fax: 602-997-0302 Web: www.semico.com