Custom Systems Best-Sellers: Notebook Memory
Demand for memory is good news for the companies in NP's survey. While 1 Gbyte of memory is the current standard for notebooks, system builders are receiving requests for 2 Gbyte memory, and sometimes, even 4-Gbytes. "Memory prices are low so customers are putting in more," said Steve Maser, vice-president of product management for system builder Seneca Data, N. Syracuse, NY.
According to the Best-Sellers Survey, Kingston Technology Company, Fountain Valley, Calif., continues to dominate the notebook memory market. While its share shrank slightly 1.8 percent from 2006 to 2007, the company commanded 32.3 percent in dollar volume share in 2007. The real growth, however, was at HP, which grew 7 percent, to 11.9 percent from 4.9 percent dollar volume share. Despite shrinking 8.6 percent, IBM had 25.3 percent dollar volume share. Panasonic had 11.6 percent, followed by Lenovo at 5.1 percent.
While many white box desktop systems are capable of expanding to as much as 8 Gbytes of memory, space limitations inside notebooks prevent that level of expansion. Notebooks have only two memory slots; some may have only one. While each new notebook shrinks further in size, it also requires increasing amounts of memory to run demanding applications. Until single memory cards greater than 1- or 2-Gbytes become readily available, notebooks will continue to lag behind desktops.
Kingston Technology produces more than 2,000 memory products, including a solid selection of notebook memory cards. System specific memory cards are designed, manufactured and tested to the specifications of a brand-name system. ValueRAM Memory is generic memory manufactured to industry-standard specifications. And finally, HyperX Memory is high-performance memory specially engineered for higher speeds. Kingston OEM Services Division also designs customized memory for OEM customers. In its 2007 financial results, Kingston reported growth in its ValueRAM and HyperX sales, and a "phenomenal jump" in system branded memory sales. Kingston also carries SODIMMS and MicroDIMMS.
Kingston supplies memory for more than 25 different notebook brands, including ones from Dell and Acer. System memory sales are not just upgrades to existing notebooks; it also includes the memory installed in new notebooks. That is also the case for Lenovo, HP and Panasonic.
Kingston sells system memory for new branded systems and for upgrades on those previously-sold branded systems and ValueRAM for white box systems. There are memory chips for notebooks, tablet PCs, handheld PCs and other portables.
Some system builders decide which vendors to source their memory from based on tech support. Memory-related problems aren't necessarily issues with the memory chip itself, but how the chip is interacting with the rest of the hardware. Tech support that helps troubleshoot hardware other than memory is more effective than one that focuses only on its own boards.
Notebooks are less forgiving of changes in specification. Memory vendors have to pay particular attention to the chips and components being used in the card, and whether they fit the configuration required by the rest of the hardware. "You can't work with a brand where you get something different each time you place an order," said Maser.