Despite of HDD Shortages, NAND Flash Prices Continue to Drop, SSDs May Become Less Expensive
[11/02/2011 06:10 PM]Although the flooding in Thailand greatly reduced output of hard disk drives (HDDs) by Seagate Technology and Western Digital, it is highly unlikely that this will catalyze skyrocketing demand towards solid-state drives (SSDs) by PC makers. Moreover, as a result of rapid transition to 20nm-class process technologies by NAND flash makers and thus increased supply of multi-level cell flash, SSDs may even get more affordable than today.
The HDD shortages created by the flooding in Thailand should temporarily increase interest in SSD products, according to DRAMeXchange, a research department of TrendForce. However, as the price gap between SSD and HDD remains high, and the process of redesigning models to equip SSD will require from two to three months in many cases, SSD adoption will mostly occur in the high-end corporate market; specifically, models that were designed to support both HDD and SSD. Therefore, the Thailand flooding incident will have a relatively limited effect on SSD demand in Q4 2011.
If the HDD inventory shortage continues into Q1 2012, although the proportion of SSD-equipped models may increase, DRAMeXchange believes that ultimately, the extent of the effect on the NAND flash market will depend on the level of consumer acceptance. Therefore, due to limited impact of HDD replacement by SSD, low restocking demand from makers, and increased supply due to continual technology migration to 20nm-class processes, NAND flash contract price is expected to decrease in November and December and thus make solid-state drives cheaper.
According to DRAMeXchange, mainstream NAND flash contract price for the second half of October fell by 4-8% due to lower than expected demand for year-end retail sales. Demand for high-density products remained weak as well due to slower than expected smartphone and tablet PC sales as well as sluggish UFD and memory card sales. Not only did the lackluster sales affect suppliers’ inventory restocking, but contract price declined as well.
Tags: NAND, Flash, Business, Samsung, Micron, Toshiba, SanDisk, 20nm
1
0
[Posted by: beenthere 
| Date: 11/03/11 10:19:12 AM]6:51 pm | OCZ Reveals Vertex 450 Solid-State Drives: High-End Performance at Mainstream Prices. OCZ Introduces New SSDs Based on Indilinx Barefoot 3 Controller
3:40 pm | Nvidia Unveils GeForce GTX 780: GK110-Based Consumer Solution for $649. Nvidia’s Cut Down Titan LE Becomes GeForce GTX 780
11:59 pm | Be Quiet: All Current Power Supplies Are Ready for Core i “Haswell”. Be Quiet Claims Top-to-Bottom Compatibility of PSUs with New Intel Chips
11:51 pm | OCZ Partners With Netgear to Deliver Flash-Based Data Center Storage in a Box Functionality to SMBs. Leading OCZ Enterprise-Class Deneva 2 SSDs Now Qualified on Netgear's ReadyDATA 516 NAS Device
11:07 pm | Half of the World’s Population Will Be Covered by 4G/LTE Networks by 2018 - Research. More Than 1 in 2 People Will Be Covered by 4G/LTE-FDD by 2018
9:38 pm | Sony Starts Manufacturing of PlayStation 3 in Brazil. Sony Begins to Make PS3 Game Consoles in Latin America
9:11 pm | Nvidia Grid Unleashes Graphics for Virtualized Desktops. Nvidia and Citrix Commercializes Grid Technology for Virtualized Desktops
8:57 pm | MIT Scientists Mix Graphene with Hexagonal Boron Nitride to Create New Material for Computer Chips. Researchers Create New Material for Semiconductors
8:43 pm | Intel Can Enable a Successful $200 PC in the Age of the Media Tablet – Analysts. Market Observers Mull Viability of $200 PCs on Current Market
8:09 pm | Microsoft Not Worried About Xbox One’s Lack of Backwards Compatibility, Vows Big Xbox 360 Announcement at E3. Microsoft Believes Xbox One Will Not Require Games of Xbox 360
7:52 pm | Asrock’s A-Style Mainboards Set to Be Waterproof. Asrock’s New Intel 8-Series Mainboards to Feature Conformal Coating
7:35 pm | Nvidia Announces PhysX and APEX Support for Microsoft Xbox One. Microsoft Xbox One Games to Use PhysX and APEX
Make Home Page
Add to Favorites
Xbitlabs on Facebook
XbitLabs is using Twitter
Windows Live Alerts
