Affected by the uncertainty of global economic recovery, NAND flash suppliers are conservative towards the 1H12 market. Therefore, suppliers’ bit growth comes mainly from process technology migration in 2012. Reducing the supply and demand gap and strengthening cost competitiveness will lower the impact of price decline to profitability, and makers will continue phasing out 200mm wafer equipment in 2012...
On May 8, Elpida revealed Micron as the winner of bidding for the right to negotiate exclusively to buy the Japanese DRAM maker. Three major DRAM teams are emerging in the industry - after Micron and Elpida have integrated, their combined market share will bring the Micron team’s figure (Micron, Inotera, Elpida, and Rexchip) to nearly 24%, surpassing SK Hynix’s 23.9% to become second only to memory giant Samsung.The tri-national alliance will combine the strengths of each – Micron’s flash products, Elpida’s mobile DRAM, and the Taiwanese makers’ manufacturing skills – presenting a formidable opponent to the Korean heavyweights. The DRAM industry is officially headed towards becoming an oligopolistic market with three major players dominating the industry. This will help DRAM chip price gradually return to a healthy state, and the competitive price-slashing will be a thing of the past...
In June 2011, Intel’s Executive Vice President Sean Maloney introduced the chipmaker’s new Ultrabook concept at the annual Computex tradeshow in Taipei, revealing the chipmaker’s future plans for notebook product design. Intel asserted that Ultrabooks would bring about a new user experience with features such as “Always On, Always Connected” (AOAC), thin and light form factor, over 10 hours of battery life, ample performance, etc...
Due to uncertainties concerning global economic recovery, many NAND Flash suppliers are conservative towards the 1H12 market. Therefore, to strengthen cost competitiveness, 1H12 bit growth will mainly be focused on process technology migration in order to help reduce oversupply and ease the impact of price decreases on profitability. Beginning in 2H12, 300mm wafer capacity will be added according to market demand. Mainstream process technology will advance from the 2xnm class in 2H11 to the 2ynm class in 2H12. TrendForce forecasts global NAND Flash bit supply volume will grow by 70.6% YoY, from 9,181 M 16Gb equiv. in 2011 to 15,663 M 16Gb equiv...