Apple orders not yet seen; NAND flash makers selling below cost
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Josephine Lien, Taipei; Esther Lam, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 11 March 2008]
In contrast to the huge procurement of NAND flash the company made in 2007, Apple seems to not have started making big procurements in 2008. While memory makers are worrying about the consumption level of Apple, mainstream NAND flash prices are already priced below cost, according to sources at Taiwan memory makers.
The sources estimated that Apple procured about US$1.2-1.3 billion worth of NAND flash in 2007, with Intel, Hynix Semiconductor, Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics all being major suppliers. Apple's concentration of its procurement within several months last year resulted in a more rapid price fluctuation in NAND flash, the sources noted.
Despite Apple having revealed a solid-state disk (SSD) version of its MacBook Air, the high retail price is unlikely to encourage huge consumption among mainstream consumers, which can hardly spur meaningful SSD penetration and NAND flash procurement, the sources said. But they do regard the speculated launch of an ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) from Apple, which is said to use multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash, as a possible catalyst to pricing.
Current prices of MLC 8Gb and 16Gb are sold under cost, with the former closing at US$2.55 and the later at US$4.65 at the lowest on March 10, according to figures posted by DRAMeXchange. As memory makers can now hardly tune their capacity mixture with DRAM when the DRAM industry is also experiencing a trough, the downward NAND flash price trend seems to have no catalyst to make prices trend upward in the near term, the sources commented.
Mainstream SLC NAND flash contract prices, 2008 (US$)
Date
16Gb (2Gbx8)
Change
8Gb(1024Mbx8)
Change
4Gb(512Mbx8)
Change
2Gb (256Mbx8)
Change
1Gb (128Mbx8)
Change
1H Jan
21.08
NA
10.7
NA
5.18
NA
3.14
NA
2.1
NA
2H Jan
21.08
0.00%
10.7
0.00%
5.18
0.00%
3.14
0.00%
2.1
0.00%
1H Feb
21.08
0.00%
10.7
0.00%
5.14
(4.30%)
3.2
(3.20%)
2.1
0.00%
2H Feb
20.78
(1.40%)
10.37
0.00%
4.98
0.00%
2.96
(5.00%)
2.04
(2.90%)
1H Mar
19.00
(8.57%)
9.22
(11.09%)
4.61
(7.43%)
2.9
(2.03%)
1.9
(6.86%)
Source: DRAMeXchange, compiled by Digitimes, March 2008
Mainstream MLC NAND flash contract prices, 2008 (US$)
Date
32Gb (4Gbx8)
Change
16Gb (2Gbx8)
Change
8Gb (1024Mbx8)
Change
4Gb (512Mbx8)
Change
1H Jan
12.12
NA
6.24
NA
3.34
NA
2.74
NA
2H Jan
12.12
0.00%
6.24
0.00%
3.34
0.00%
2.74
0.00%
1H Feb
12.12
0.00%
6.20
(0.64%)
3.34
0.00%
2.72
(0.73%)
2H Feb
11.70
(3.47%)
5.80
(6.45%)
3.15
(5.69%)
2.50
(8.09%)
1HMar
11.32
(3.25%)
5.54
(4.48%)
2.98
(5.40%)
2.39
(4.40%) |
