“‘Samsung Electronics has informed Taiwan module makers that it will halve its NAND flash memory to them in September, and Micron Technology has also told some of its downstream customers that no NAND flash chips are available, claimed the sources,’ the report said. ‘Toshiba and Hynix Semiconductor are also giving priority to Apple, and are offering limited supply to the spot market, the sources added,'” Marsal reports.
“The average price for a 16GB chip was $4.48, up 7.2 percent in the first half of September,” Marsal reports. “32GB also rose 4.3 percent to $6.80… If true, the latest report from DigiTimes could suggest that competitors, like the Zune HD, have been unable to offer the capacity of the iPod touch because memory suppliers simply will not provide enough product to anyone other than Apple.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Pfft. Zune. Surely, Samsung and Micron could dust off and ship Microsoft the handful of 64GB parts that happen to fall off the conveyor belt onto the floor before they’re packed for Apple. 5-second rule! Microsoft can’t need more than a couple thousand such chips, most of which are destined to sit on warehouse shelves until the end of time or retailers demand that Microsoft take them back, whichever comes first.
Zune Tang is now going to be no-Zune Tang.
@MDN Take: I thought the 5 second rule applied to Windows uptime.
funniest MDN take in awhile.
“5 second rule!”
First ATT complained that Apple is too successful,
now NAND flash chip makers are saying Apple is too successful.
Doesn’t anyone want to sell their product?
Steve Ballmer, even the suppliers can’t take the Zune seriously. You should take what is left of the cash from your dying company and buy or build your own chip company. In for a penny in for a couple billion. IF YOU BUILD IT SOMEONE COULD … MAYBE … MISTAKINGLY … BUY ONE.
You should make them brown again!
I think the only thing preventing the 64GB Zune is the market, as in none . . .
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http://nelsonhaha.com/
Zune can use faulty NAND and no one would notice any difference
Zune Tanged won’t be around today I bet. He’s probably camping out at the local Walmart Store/Best Buy to beat the crowd of 12 or so on launch day!
What’s a Zune again?
I’m sure the shortage of Zune customers is a bigger obstacle for Microsoft.
Sell memory to the customer who has 80% of the marketshare or to a customer with 1.1%, I wonder who will win.
somehow this feels a lot like the complaints about getting games on the Mac.
“Sell memory to the customer who has 80% of the marketshare or to a customer with 1.1%, I wonder who will win.”
Yeah, that was it.
I am sure glad that Apple has managed to get a chunk of market and doesn’t have to suffer that crap anymore.
Though most of Apples market share is in home users, and we all know it is the people at work who are playing games…
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The world rejoice, for you have been saved!
This isn’t simply a matter of selling to the company that has the larger market share.
Apple has spent billions of dollars in pre-payments to to flash memory suppliers. When Apple orders memory, it is basically ordering memory from a factory built with its money, not the manufacturer’s.
Or, until Mafia$oft pays people to buy them – just like how they are paying people to use Bing.
“Steve Jobs doesn’t care about Zune people.”
@Bioness
“Zune can use faulty NAND and no one would notice any difference”
ROFLMAO
Thanks — that laugh did me good!
Poor MS!
I have a bunch of old 256MB and 512MB RAM chips I can loan MS for the Zune. If I really do some digging, I may even have some old 1MB RAM. It’ll cost ’em, though!
Why aren’t these flash suppliers raising their prices? Demand far exceeds supply, raise prices. Sounds like they are leaving lots of “Area” on the supply and demand graph. (Where area = profit$)
Is the NAND market so inelastic they can’t jack the price a few cents per thousand until demand meets their production capacity?
Interesting to note the price differences between memory capacity, even though they are supplier prices.
Oh, come on. We all know there’s actually a shortage of cardboard and plastic for the Zune’s packaging; that’s what’s REALLY holding up the 64GB Zune. But Microsoft would rather make Apple look like the bad guy.
Ballmer: “See, Apple’s selling SO many iPods and iPhones, there’s not enough parts left for the rest of us!”
Nice marketing strategy.
Plus, Greenpeace would be all over Microsoft if they announced the cardboard/plastic shortage reason. Greenpeace might paint that taxpayer-paid-for bridge in Redmond or something.
The power and leverage of having a huge cash surplus and paying up front for vital components. The funny thing is, biz school graduates will tell you apple should buy back stock, take loans etc… I just love the way apple thinks outside the box. The stock will follow, just takes a little longer to get there *cause biz school graduates just don’t get it. Isn’t apple’s cash close to $50 a share these days and rising? The devil inside me wants some more short selling to bring the stock down so I can buy more. But I think those days are over. It’s just too strong a company to manipulate any more.
OpJ is right.
AFAIK, Apple basically finances the NAND flash RAM the manufacturers build. They can’t just sell it to someone else.
That would be similar to you selling a truck full of dope on your own that a South American drug cartel gave you to hand-over to someone else.
The outcome would not be pretty in both cases….
Speaking of cramer, he probably won’t be mentioning apple for a while. He can no longer pump and dump, that’s what he does. I would like to be wrong but let’s see if he even mentions apple in the coming months. Apple long term just keeps getting bettr.