Strong demand may freeze SSD pricing in Q3 2018

Posted on Friday, May 18 2018 @ 10:40 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

The pricing of NAND flash memory has been falling since the end of 2017, with price drops slowing to a level of around 10 percent in Q2 2018. However, industry sources believe strong demand from the mobile phone and PC markets may prevent NAND prices from falling further in Q3 2018. An expected uptick in demand may make the current oversupply situation less severe.

It's a typical boom-bust issue. Lower prices drive up demand, which in turn results in undersupply.

The fall in NAND flash prices has been accelerating the adoption of SSDs among PCs, the sources noted. ODMs have moved to promote models equipped with PCIe NVMe SSDs with volume production of their new devices slated to kick off in the third quarter, the sources said. Client SSDs are expected to transition from SATA to PCIe NVMe in 2018.

SSD prices had fallen about 50% from November 2017 to the end of the first quarter, Phison Electronics chairman Khein Seng Pua remarked recently. Prices are likely to rebound before or after the Computex 2018 trade show, and the supply of NAND flash will become tight again, according to Pua.

Via: DigiTimes

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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