Current Events In The Memory Market And How They May Affect Prices In The Near Future

Upcoming events in the USB, NAND Flash, and larger electronic markets may affect prices in the very near future. Then again, they may not. Below are two brief articles released today from within our industry…

iPhone 6 Leaked / Concept[/caption]

Apple To Announce The iPhone 6 In September.

- According to Chinese supplier Pegatron, Apple will announce its next-generation iPhone 6 with a 4.7-inch display in September.

Pegatron has received 15% of all iPhone 6 orders, while Apple in total has ordered 50 million iPhones (which includes older models as well) from the supplier.

Wondering when the 5.5-inch iPhone phablet will arrive? Well, it is slated for 2014, but don’t expect it before mid-Q3.

Macronix International Inc[/caption]

Macronix, Winbond begin volume production of NAND flash chips.

- Taiwan-based NOR flash suppliers Macronix International and Winbond Electronics have begun rolling out low-density single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash chips in meaningful volumes, according to industry sources.
The global NAND flash market has been dominated by the top-four players – Samsung Electronics (40%), Toshiba (25%), Micron Technology (15%) and SK Hynix (12%), the sources noted, citing data from market research firms.

However, the top-four vendors have been focusing on production of high-density NAND flash chips mainly for eMMC and SSD applications, leaving the low-density parts for Macronix and Winbond to develop, the sources said.

Macronix is offering NAND flash chips built using its 36nm technology developed in house and plans to place more capacity at 12-inch fabs in the second half of 2014, eyeing the market potential in the telematics sector, indicated the sources. Meanwhile, fellow company Powerchip Technology has been offering NAND flash chips built using technology from Renesas Electronics, added the sources.

- Source: ChinaFlashMarket

But what do these two articles have to do with the custom USB market? And what do they have to do with each other? Well, when a giant like Apple begins production on a brand new device, this puts a great lean on the NAND Flash memory market, and in turn our USB drive market, since we both count on the same group of manufacturers and their ability to produce the memory required to make our products. But look! A new company is coming to the table to increase supply. As long as Macronix can increase the market’s supply in time for the demand-pull placed by Apple and other makers of new smart-devices coming out this fall, this may offset the rise in price, and could even cause a further decline in USB drive pricing once the iRush is satiated.

This all may seem boring to the average individual, but what this means to you is that hopefully pricing for your printed USB drives could remain comfortably low for the time being, and through period of the year which usually sees prices rise. Then after the industry calms slightly, we should all see further lowering of certain memory sizes, hopefully some time near the end of 2014.

There’s no telling what the future holds exactly for pricing in the USB market, but these are definitely some good indicators as to what may be on the horizon.

— Daniel Rubin - CEO of USB Direct Inc - 05 09 2014