NAND Flash Memory Production Declines 27.4 Pct in Q1
May 30, 2001 (TOKYO) -- According to a survey by Nikkei Market Access, world production of NAND flash memory, including AND-type memory, declined a steep 27.4 percent to US$182 million in the first quarter of 2001 compared with the previous quarter.
Though demand for NAND flash memories has been rising steadily as a memory medium for digital still cameras, the great expectation for "silicon audio" devices, which use the memory, to surge during 2000 turned out to be a disappointment. And the digital camera industry also needs a production adjustment for 2001. As a result, there has been an oversupply of NAND flash memories.
Though semiconductor makers have shrunk their production since the first quarter of 2001, the price decline trend is continuing, with the estimated price in the second quarter of 2001 at less than US$0.5 per 1MB. Without the development of the memory's usage other than for digital cameras, the NAND flash memory market will reach its ceiling sooner or later.
The most favorable application is for mobile phones. Mobile phone makers have been studying and developing new cellular phone functions such as information storage of dictionaries and maps, and storing desired data downloaded via the Internet.
As for digital cameras, 64Mb NAND flash memory has long been used in an 8MB card that comes with the camera. For memory makers, to shift to larger capacity memories for use in digital cameras is essential to expand their memory shipments, but at the same time, the prices of cameras will rise. To that extent, the camera's memory capacity is mainly suppressed to 8MB.
There appears to be some movement to apply a 16MB memory card, but that likely will come after the third quarter of 2001 at the earliest.
(Tamao Kikuchi, Nikkei Market Access) |
