Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

nand posts

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, iPhone

iPhone refresh could be straining Apple's flash memory suppliers

by Robert Palmer (RSS feed) on Feb 17th, 2009

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.

Continue reading “iPhone refresh could be straining Apple's flash memory suppliers”

Tags: flash, hynix, iphone, memory, micron, nand, rakesh, samsung, sutherland, thinkequity, toshiba

Filed under: Portables, Rumors

Future Macs could be flash-based

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Mar 8th, 2007

Bloomberg is contemplating the future of Apple laptops this morning. Specifically, flash-based laptops with no internal hard drives.

It has been suggested that Apple would use NAND flash memory chips in their machines, which are still much pricier than slim hard drives. Of course, NAND chip manufacturers are all for it: "It would be positive for flash memory makers in that new demand can be created from diversified applications,'' said James Song, an analyst at Good Morning Shinhan Securities Co. in Seoul.

It sure would be nice, as laptops could become much thinner (consider that the iPod nano is 80% smaller than a 80GB iPod), lighter and have less moving parts. Plus, we can already boot OS X from a usb flash drive, so why not?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Tags: flash, laptops, nand

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors

Flash-based MacBooks next year?

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Sep 29th, 2006

Buzz has been flying for a while now around the hard drive's belated evolution into flash-based drives, much like the solid-state memory found in the iPod nano. Engadget has of course been covering this NAND flash memory for some time, while manufacturers have been demoing real-world notebooks that use them as early as March 2006. The advantages of these drives are far better power usage (meaning: much longer battery lives), faster seek times (meaning: stuff works faster), vastly improved durability (no moving parts) and even some claim "instantaneous" OS booting.

This all gets interesting when considering Apple's position, as they have one of the largest reputations with NAND flash memory manufacturers among PC makers, due to the success of the iPod. Sure, Samsung has been showing off their own flash-based notebook prototypes, but that's because they're cheating - they're one of the largest manufacturers of NAND memory. Apple's close relationship with these manufacturers is leading many to speculate that they could be one of the first manufacturers with a flash-based notebook, even as early as 2007, especially since Samsung is already selling commercial models with at least 32GB NAND drives baked in.

This is, of course, speculation, and when speculation comes from the rumor gurus, you'd darn well better take it with at least one, if not two, grains of salt. Besides, back in March, a 32GB NAND flash drive cost $900 alone at $30/GB. With the way things move in this industry, prices should undoubtedly be at least a little better by now, but the question of when they become appealing enough for manufacturers like Apple to start including them as standard parts is anyone's guess. If anything, I'll bet that we'll start seeing rumors of NAND-based MacBooks at Macworld San Francisco 07 once the season kicks in. Stay tuned.

Tags: drive, flash, hard drive, HardDrive, memory, nand

Tip of the Day

Reply in the Mail.app with a specific quote.
Select the text you want quoted and then hit the reply button.
Only your selected text will copied to the reply email.

Learn More

Follow us on Twitter!

TUAW flickr Pool

www.flickr.com
 TUAW [Cafepress]

Featured Galleries

DNC Macs
Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Google Earth for iPhone
Podcaster
Storyist 2.0
AT&T Navigator Road Test
Bento for iPhone 1.0
Scrabble for iPhone
Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase
Apple Vanity Plates
Apple booth Macworld 07
WorldVoice Radio
Quickoffice for iPhone 1.1.1
Daylite 3.9 Review
DiscPainter
Mariner Calc for iPhone
2009CupertinoBus
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
MLB.com At Bat 2009
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor

 

Most Commented On (7 days)

Recent Comments

More Apple Analysis

More from AOL Money and Finance

AOL Radio TUAW on Stitcher