TOKYO -- Pricing of memory chips for PCs are at their highest point in three years as capacities are gobbled up by smartphone OEMs, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technologies Industries Association.

The price of a 4GB DDR4 DRAM rose 3% sequentially in February to around $3.30, while 4GB DDR3 DRAM pricing is about $3, the trade group said. It marks the highest point for DRAM prices in 19 months. Likewise, the price for 64GB MLC-type NAND flash memory upticked 1% to $3.60, and the 128GB version rose 4% to their highest price in three years.

The price of a 128GB MLC SSD jumped 3% in February to $54, the trade group added.

The rising prices are bucking long-held wisdom that the cost of memory starts to fall within a few months of the device's release.

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