Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, iPhone
iPhone refresh could be straining Apple's flash memory suppliers
According to Ed Sutherland from Cult of Mac, three out of four Apple's NAND flash memory suppliers are feeling the strain as the company demands storage for its new line of iPhones.
Sutherland cites a research report by analyst Vijay Rakesh from ThinkEquity. Rakesh says that Samsung has set aside its inventory of NAND chips for Apple until April.
Hynix, another supplier, reported softer sales growth for its NAND chips, and Toshiba is having problems supplying customers with 56nm NAND chips. Apple's fourth supplier, Micron, wasn't mentioned in Rakesh's report.
Aside from a new iPhone handset on the way, what does this mean? Higher memory prices, for one. Rakesh said that he expects NAND spot and contract prices to rise.
Many analysts around the time of Apple's Q1 conference call said they had high hopes for a new iPhone during the first half of the year. Some rumors suggest June might be the target date for release.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David Hildreth said 1:07PM on 2-17-2009
Higher prices would be good news for Micron. Boise's economy needs all the help it can get right now.
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Datsux4u said 1:42PM on 2-17-2009
Definately June. Once the upgrade option goes into effect apple won't want anybody thinking about anything but iPhones
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Murphy Mac said 2:00PM on 2-17-2009
That's a good point I hadn't considered. I hope it's not any later than June, my Verizon contract is about up.
xxburt0nxx said 2:37PM on 2-17-2009
So just don't renew it... keep whatever phone you have until you know the release of the next phone you want, and sign a new 2 year after that.
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Murphy Mac said 2:43PM on 2-17-2009
Yeah - I know. I'm saying I don't want to wait any longer than that. My contract is up in April, and I've wanted to switch to the iPhone for a while.
But thanks.
xxburt0nxx said 2:51PM on 2-17-2009
ahh got ya.. yeah hopefully it will be sometime around then. At least we should have some type of expected release date by then so you will know how long you are gonna have to wait if it isn't in june!
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Dave T. said 4:15PM on 2-17-2009
So I've heard the June rumor as well and wonder how Apple can kind of get word out that a new iPhone is coming without spoiling current sales? Because everything coming out of MWC is so all encompassing, if Apple said, if you want a new phone just wait four months and we'll be new too, then I think their market share would increase even more. Without that they're definitely giving a leg up to the Google phones et al.
Oh, and I'm not an "Apple" person.
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brian said 5:05PM on 2-17-2009
From a Fortune interview with Tim Cook, Apple's COO:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/15/technology/cook_apple.fortune/
"$24.5 billion in cash and no debt... is a potent strategic weapon: It allows Cook to lock in suppliers and club competitors. In 2005, Apple introduced a new iPod, the Nano, a music player that was revolutionary because it used far more flash memory than existing products on the market. Cook's team accurately predicted tremendous demand for the Nano, and prepaid $1.25 billion to suppliers like Samsung and Hynix to effectively corner the market through 2010 on a specific kind of memory."
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(01) said 5:57PM on 2-17-2009
I've been having a hell of a time ordering Dell computers for my organization; specifically with shipping times. I finally got a rep to tell me that they're "waiting on processors" from Intel, and while different than the flash suppliers, could this be due to Apples increasing market share? I my personal opinion, it's a bunch of shit and dell sucks, but this could give some credence to their claim.
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pditty said 10:46AM on 2-18-2009
i doubt it, as intel put it, demand for processors "fell off a cliff".
seems lie they should have plenty of capacity to make cpus, even with the change over to i7 and smaller architecture.