Aus,
Great article, thanks for posting. I found the DRAM vs. flash comparison especially interesting, and worth re-posting on the thread:
<<When thinking about the economics of the memory market, most people think about DRAM. In that space, memory vendors tend to price their chips as high as they can when the supply is tight, not only to sock away some profits for when the cycle heads down, but also to pay for capital investment in order to increase production capacity. In this purely commodity market, price and availability rank as some of the most important variables that can make or break a sale, which is why the vendors are so cutthroat in their pricing. A difference of pennies per chip can be huge.
Products run gamut
"The flash market is very different," said AMD's Plouse. The main reason is that there are a wide variety of different products, rather than a few interchangeable designs. But even more important, the end applications for flash chips are seeing phenomenal growth, while the DRAM market is tied primarily to the more mature PC segment.
Flash customers need their parts, and without flash chips, they can't ship their products. And they are not in a position where they can easily turn to another vendor, because of the many different variables in the flash product portfolio, including density, voltage packaging, and whether the device uses the NAND or NOR architecture. They need their suppliers to keep supplying, even if the chip market heads into one of its periodical cyclical downturns, because there is no projected end in sight for growth in the cellular phone market.>> |
