June 28, 2010
New Smartphones and Touchpads Keep Industry Healthy
Demand for hot new devices such as Apple's recent iPhone 4 and iPad are driving other manufacturers to release their own new products which in turn has brought up overall demand for the essential NAND chips that they all utilize.
Industry analysts and NAND manufacturers are saying that the demand remains high for flash chips which are installed into superphones tablets and many types of other digital electronics. Such conditions will help to keep prices for NAND stable for at least the next few months. Companies that will likely see profits from this boom are flash memory manufacturers such as Samsung Toshiba Micron and Hynix.
"Given the low level of capital expenditure made by NAND flash makers last year we foresee some limitation in the increase of overall supply of NAND chips this year" said a spokesman for Japan's Toshiba which is the second largest maker worldwide of NAND chips after Samsung. The spokesman also remarked that supply within the NAND flash trade will begin to tighten starting in the second half of this year.
Apple can boast that they've sold nearly 3mil iPads since its debut in April. As well the new iPhone 4 has been Apple's most recent success with preorders exceeding 600000 on the first day preorders began. Their carrier ATT stopped taking their preorders due to inventory problems and a strong demand that was not expected.
"The success of the iPhone in the smart-phone category has spurred the launch of a series of competitive mobile phones. Beyond the smart-phone segment a number of other promising products are driving the NAND market this year including e-books and tablet PCs" claimed Michael Yang who is an analyst at research firm iSuppli.
Dell Samsung and Toshiba have all announced their plans to debut their own tablets in the last several months. Several mobile device manufacturers such as LG Sony Ericsson and Nokia also have released smartphones that will compete alongside the new iPhone 4. The NAND market is also being expanded by the emergence of e-readers like Amazon's Kindle and the Barnes Noble Nook.
Revenue for global NAND flash increased to 4.36bil for the first quarter an increase from 4.33bil in fourth quarter. As well iSuppli have predicted NAND flash revenue is set to boost 34 for a total 18.1bil this year which is up from the 13.5bil made last year. Average prices have also begun sliding 6.4 in the most recent quarter coming off the fourth which is significant when compared to the usual seasonal drop off to about 14. This past Monday a typical spot price for a 32GB NAND flash chip went for 7.03 the same as two weeks ago according to DRAMeXchange the largest spot market for chips in Asia.
The world's biggest supplier of NAND flash memory Samsung who is also Apple's supplier said that they are making preparations to increase production of their high-density NAND during the second half of this year as a reaction to such strong customer demand. They have also stated the market is in shortage right now while demand is expected to keep increasing alongside the more prevalent use of these chips in phones and cameras.
"The iPad and iPad-like products will consume about 5 to 10 of the global NAND demand in the second half" said an analyst at Arete. "We don't expect the market to be in a shortage as traditional demand drivers such as flash storage card USB flash drive and MP3 player market have still been weak. However supply and demand should be in good balance as consumer demand picks up in the holiday season."
Industry analysts and NAND manufacturers are saying that the demand remains high for flash chips which are installed into superphones tablets and many types of other digital electronics. Such conditions will help to keep prices for NAND stable for at least the next few months. Companies that will likely see profits from this boom are flash memory manufacturers such as Samsung Toshiba Micron and Hynix.
"Given the low level of capital expenditure made by NAND flash makers last year we foresee some limitation in the increase of overall supply of NAND chips this year" said a spokesman for Japan's Toshiba which is the second largest maker worldwide of NAND chips after Samsung. The spokesman also remarked that supply within the NAND flash trade will begin to tighten starting in the second half of this year.
Apple can boast that they've sold nearly 3mil iPads since its debut in April. As well the new iPhone 4 has been Apple's most recent success with preorders exceeding 600000 on the first day preorders began. Their carrier ATT stopped taking their preorders due to inventory problems and a strong demand that was not expected.
"The success of the iPhone in the smart-phone category has spurred the launch of a series of competitive mobile phones. Beyond the smart-phone segment a number of other promising products are driving the NAND market this year including e-books and tablet PCs" claimed Michael Yang who is an analyst at research firm iSuppli.
Dell Samsung and Toshiba have all announced their plans to debut their own tablets in the last several months. Several mobile device manufacturers such as LG Sony Ericsson and Nokia also have released smartphones that will compete alongside the new iPhone 4. The NAND market is also being expanded by the emergence of e-readers like Amazon's Kindle and the Barnes Noble Nook.
Revenue for global NAND flash increased to 4.36bil for the first quarter an increase from 4.33bil in fourth quarter. As well iSuppli have predicted NAND flash revenue is set to boost 34 for a total 18.1bil this year which is up from the 13.5bil made last year. Average prices have also begun sliding 6.4 in the most recent quarter coming off the fourth which is significant when compared to the usual seasonal drop off to about 14. This past Monday a typical spot price for a 32GB NAND flash chip went for 7.03 the same as two weeks ago according to DRAMeXchange the largest spot market for chips in Asia.
The world's biggest supplier of NAND flash memory Samsung who is also Apple's supplier said that they are making preparations to increase production of their high-density NAND during the second half of this year as a reaction to such strong customer demand. They have also stated the market is in shortage right now while demand is expected to keep increasing alongside the more prevalent use of these chips in phones and cameras.
"The iPad and iPad-like products will consume about 5 to 10 of the global NAND demand in the second half" said an analyst at Arete. "We don't expect the market to be in a shortage as traditional demand drivers such as flash storage card USB flash drive and MP3 player market have still been weak. However supply and demand should be in good balance as consumer demand picks up in the holiday season."
