Lenovo admits to RAM supply issues for upcoming LePad tablet

According to a report from WSJ, Chinese manufacturer Lenovo is yet another company to fall victim to supply issues from the recent Japanese earthquakes and resulting factory shutdowns. More specifically, the company is worried about memory chip availability for its upcoming LePad tablet PC.

Market intelligence service DRAMeXchange claims that the average price for DDR chips in general is up 8 percent due to the tsunami, while DDR3 prices have been steadily rising and is now up 3 percent. The LePad tablet will reportedly come with 1GB of RAM, but whether or not Lenovo will absorb the price increase or pass it down to consumers is currently unknown.

Besides RAM issues, additional component supply stocks are also expected to face setbacks, including batteries, NAND flash chips, LCD panels, and silicon wafers. Fortunately, many of these problems are expected to die down within the next few months, according to TechEye. Chip makers such as Intel and Qualcomm, however, have been on record claiming to have no production issues after the earthquake and tsunami events.

The Lenovo LePad should still be on schedule for a worldwide release this June, although it will be released in China first before it enters the global market. Hopefully any future delays will be short, as the tablet has already been delayed since its announcement late last year. Official retail costs for the tablet remain unclear, but with all the changing supply problems, we expect that the company itself has yet to figure out the final prices either.

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