According to Digitimes sources, Kingston Technoolgy, one of the largest memory suppliers in the world, is planning to slash prices on all NAND flash memory products by up to 15%. Products that use NAND flash memory chips include memory cards, flash drives, and our personal favorite, SSDs.
“…Kingston indicated that its planned price adjustments are to coordinate chip suppliers’ shift to more advanced process technologies for production growth. Kingston added that in 2012, the company aims to enhance its presence in the NAND flash market segment.”
“Major NAND flash chipmakers are transitioning to their newer 2Xnm and 19nm processes, which will result in ramp-ups of their capacity as more advanced processes allow for more chips produced on a single wafer. However, end-market demand thus far in 2012 has been disappointing, raising oversupply concerns, the sources indicated.”
While Kingston Technology hasn’t officially announced the expected price cuts, they are indicating that “price adjustments” will be happening as chip suppliers develop advanced technologies (2Xnm and 19nm process) for increasing production. They are also indicating their interest in increasing their presence in the NAND flash market as well, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some pretty aggressive pricing as well.
What does this mean for us? Well, cheaper NAND flash products from Kingston and most likely an industry wide drop in prices. Will we finally be seeing SSDs being sold at <$1 per gigabyte?
Source: DigiTimes
