“A report issued on the flash RAM market indicates that Apple is inhaling supplies of memory components in preparation for the next generation iPhone, causing part shortages and raising the spot price for memory,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider.
“The ThinkEquity Partners’ report centered on SanDisk, which is not one of the four companies Apple actually buys its memory components from (Samsung, Hynix, Toshiba, and Micron),” McLean reports. “However, the report says Apple’s voracious appetite for flash RAM is affecting the entire market.”
“The iPhone maker has bought out Samsung’s entire available supply, putting the world’s largest producer of flash memory on allocation until April 2009, according to the report,” McLean reports. “Samsung makes just over 40% of the world’s NAND Flash RAM.
“ThinkEquity also said that it believes Hynix and Toshiba are also ‘under NAND supply constraints as Apple ramps NAND demand for its next-generation iPhones,'” McLean reports. “Apple’s position in selling tens of millions of iPods gives it the ability to cherry pick components at prices many competitors can’t match.”
McLean reports, “Finding enough flash RAM supply may become more difficult as Apple continues to eats up an increasing volume of the world’s supply of memory parts, even as the global economy cools and production is cut back.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good thing Palm’s Pre is just takeover bait, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to find any flash chips to shove into the thing before Apple sues them into oblivion.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
