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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: franklin1 who wrote (32586)	6/21/2006 9:05:26 AM
From: inaflash	Respond to of 60323

Kingston diversifies DRAM sourcing, but reliance on Toshiba for NAND flash still provides market advantage digitimes.com Josephine Lien, Taipei; Esther Lam, DigiTimes.com [Tuesday 20 June 2006] Kingston Technology is pursuing diverging strategies for securing supply for its memory products, with memory giant Samsung Electronics playing a smaller role as a supplier in the DRAM segment, while in the NAND flash segment, Kingston will continue depending on Toshiba, according to company founder David Sun. Although Samsung was once Kingston's main DRAM supplier, Kingston now sources less than 10% of its required DRAM from Samsung. The decreased role Samsung is playing as a DRAM supplier is a result of rapid business growth, Sun said. The memory-module maker has diversified its supply agreements to include other maker such as Elpida Memory, Hynix Semiconductor, ProMOS Technologies and Qimonda (the spun-off memory business unit from Infineon Technologies). Toshiba, on the other hand, is maintaining its role as a major NAND flash supplier for Kingston, accounting for 45% of Kingston's required NAND supply. The remainder is supplied by Hynix, Samsung and Renesas Technology with respective ratios of 20%, 20% and 15%, Sun detailed. Toshiba increased its role at Kingston when Kingston decided to extend its memory module business to NAND flash in June 2004, he added. Toshiba offers competitive pricing based on the cost advantage of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND production. Kingston is now the only third-party memory module maker besides SanDisk that is capable of securing MLC NAND from Toshiba, Sun highlighted. Although admitting that Kingston entered the NAND sector relatively late, Sun stated Kingston is able to secure sufficient supply and maintain cost benefits due to its relationship with Toshiba . Although solid NAND supply has assisted Kingston in securing a foothold in the market, Sun commented that continued NAND output growth will free industry players from inadequate supply. Industry players are now encountering stiff challenges to boost their market share further, as securing stable supply will no longer provide a competitive advantage.