BANGALORE, INDIA: News from Kingston Technology is that DRAM chips are likely to remain in high demand in the latter part of 2010 due to sustained requirement in the smartphones sector as well as from 3D TVs. Along with other emerging new applications, these are likely to give the reigning PC stiff competition to get a strong foothold in the memory arena.

At present the capabilities of high density mobile RAMs are up to 2GB, which is equivalent to a PC’s memory content. And with the smartphone sector taking in a lot of DRAM capacity, along with many non-PC applications, the DRAM industry is certain to see a sustained growth.

Another likely possibility that is anticipated is that the industry will have a good balance between supply and demand, with a chance of demand exceeding supply even during this time period. This could come as a result of certain DRAM producers being in the midst of transitions in technology, which could hinder the production and consequentially their supply potential.

Samsung Electronics, which is currently a big player in the market, has projected their chip capex regarding 2010, and is targeting a broad range in end-market applications. They would be unlikely to expand their DRAM capacity immediately, since this might hurt profitability and reflect badly in their pricing. Kingston expects that SSDs (solid state drives), which in 2009 accounted for hardly 1% of their NAND flash product capacity, will grow to 10% this year.