Memory Bulletin: NAND glut seen in '06
Mark LaPedus
EE Times
(05/30/2006 4:24 PM EDT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — There is expected to be a slight oversupply of NAND-based flash memories in the marketplace for 2006, although supply is projected to become tight in the second half of this year, according to an analyst.
“Overall, we believe that the NAND flash market is unique in that bit supply has grown at a rate of 200 percent since 2002 with demand completely absorbing capacity,” said Satya Chillara American Technology Research Inc., in a report.
“Supply remained in oversupply mode in 1Q ‘06 due to seasonality, but we believe that in 2Q ‘06, we should start seeing signs of tightness in the NAND industry,” he said in the report.
In total, however, there is expected to be a 1-to-2 percent oversupply of NAND flash memories for 2006, according to the analyst.
Supply bit growth is projected to hit 641,031 terabytes (TB) in 2006, up 198 percent over 2005, according to the firm. Demand bit growth is projected to hit 636,572 TB in 2006, up 194 percent over 2005.
The largest market for NAND is MP3 players (37 percent), followed by digital cameras (25 percent), USB drives (17 percent), cell phones (14 percent) and others (5 percent), according to the firm. This does not add up to 100 percent due to rounding, it said.
|
