Analyst predicts big drop in NAND flash memory price

Objective-Analysis analyst Jim Handy predicts a collapse of NAND flash memory prices in the second half of this year due to too much fab capacity coming online. According to Handy, prices of NAND flash memory may drop from today's $1.60 per gigabyte to only $0.65 per gigabyte by mid-2012. Sounds like good news for everyone who wants to get his hands on a SSD.

But don’t look now, the NAND flash party may be nearly over. Hynix, Micron, Samsung and Toshiba have or will ramp up new NAND fabs-a move that could cause a capacity glut and falling prices.

''We’ve been calling for a collapse (in the NAND market) in the second half of this year,’’ said Jim Handy, an analyst with Objective-Analysis.

Demand is expected to remain strong in NAND. Average selling prices (ASPs) for NAND have been flat for over a year, but ASPs are expected to collapse in the fourth quarter of 2011, Handy said at ISSCC.

Source: EE Times