The potential for Apple’s iPad to be wildly successful is a concern for more than direct rivals of the Cupertino, Calif. company. If the iPad becomes yet another hot product, expect flash memory to be even more expensive and don’t hold your breath for solid state drives to replace traditional hard drives on PCs, warns a Friday report.
“With the iPad likely to grab most memory supplies, prices may increase causing higher prices for SSDs,” writes industry publication Digitimes, citing an unnamed source. Apple currently consumes nearly one-third of the total flash (or NAND) memory supplies, the report says.
The report said the iPad will become a “significant market for flash memory in 2010.” Numerous times, Apple’s iPod and iPhone have been blames for previous memory shortages and increases in prices.
Although more expensive to produce and offering less storage capacity than traditional hard drives, solid state drives seem well-suited to the growing number of mobile devices. In 2008, Apple put its full corporate weight behind the technology, introducing its MacBook Air. SSDs offer the benefit of faster operation and being less prone to breakdowns, a plus for mobile devices, such as the MacBook and the iPad.
Although the flash memory industry intends to move to 20nm manufacturing, a shift that should be accompanied by lower prices, that transition likely won’t happen until mid-2011. The intervening period will consequently mean continued high prices and repeated news of a tight NAND supply.
[via AppleInsider and Digitimes]
