The INQUIRER: Because it's already tomorrow and yesterday somewhere
|
|
|
Apple's Iphone causes memory shortage
THE BEANCOUNTERS at Isuppli have accused Apple of causing an industry-wide shortage of NAND flash memory.
Jobs' Mob uses NAND flash memory to store music, video and apps on its Iphone and Ipod gadgets and Apple wants to increase the Iphone's storage capacity to 64GB. This means that other phone makers like Nokia, Samsung and HTC will have to boost the memory on their own phones to keep up.
Isuppli analyst Michael Yang said that the Iphone uses more NAND flash memory than any other product and has cornered about a third of the world's supply. To make matters worse Apple is planning on releasing an Ipad tablet that will need even more NAND.
But although Samsung, Toshiba, Micron, Hynix and other memory makers are running their factories flat out to meet demand, they won't be able to make the chips fast enough through the third quarter of 2010.
Other device manufacturers might have some difficulty sourcing NAND flash chips and they could become more expensive since Apple has locked up ample supplies of NAND memory in long term contracts. µ
Share this:
Share
Cheers mr jobs, now i know why SSD's are going UP in price not down... Great.
you freaks. It's just Nick "fartels" about Apple.
The more flash will be used the less price per byte eventually
When demand goes up and supplies drop, prices go up. When manufacturers pay higher prices, guess who else ends up paying more? That's right, us, the consumers. Thanks for the cost hike Mr. Jobs.
Its not the flash makers that are complaining, its the bean counters at iSupply complaining on behalf of those device manufacturers who dont have long-term contracts in place to get their hands on the NAND that they require.
Apple have pretty much ordered over 30% of all the global production of NAND for the next few years. Good for NAND makers, bad for those who need some in the future and have to wait months for it.
So Apple is doubling the storage capacity of their devices thereby forcing their competitors to do the same and flash memory companies are complaining?