Ultrabooks and the cloud responsible for slower pc dram growth?

According to the market analyst, it will be hurt most by the emergence of the Ultrabook portable computer from Intel as well as by the growing dominion of cloud computing services. IHS projects dram content this year in notebook computers, a key pc market, to be 4GB per device - a decline from the original estimate of 4.2GB. The new lower fore¬cast for dram content for notebooks translates into year on year growth in 2011 of 25%, down from initial projections of 31% expansion. Mike Howard, analyst at IHS, said: "The disparity between initial expectations of dram loading in notebooks, compared to newly ad¬justed forecasts to re?ect the lower growth, will become even more dramatic in the next four years." According to Howard, for 2012, the differential will amount to 0.6GB - up from 0.2GB this year - as a result of dram loading being reduced in individual notebooks from 5.7 to 5.1GB. "The discrepancy will climb to 1.0GB in 2013, surge to 1.9GB in 2014 and then peak at 2.4GB by 2015," he noted. "As a result, the growth rate forecast compared to initial projections will be down by 8% in 2012, by 5% in 2013 and by 8% again in 2014, before recovering slightly in 2015 to a 1% decline. The net result is that dram content in notebooks will amount to a projected 10.2GB per device by 2015, compared to prior forecasts that showed memory loading of 12.6GB."