Apple’s iPad could delay its move to SSDs

9th March, 2010 by adina
Tags: , , , ,

Apple’s imminent launch of the iPad may affect the ability of other firms to use solid-state drives, according to some sources in the industry. The company already consumes over a third of all NAND flash memory supplies to produce iPhones and iPods, and making another primarily flash-based product could minimize supplies even more. By reducing the availability of these parts, Apple could artificially force the price of the remaining stocks to rise and make SSDs more expensive to manufacture.

Flash memory producers have developed denser memory at 30 nanometers or even smaller in order to increase the amount of memory possible to be made at once, but prices have still been on the rise this year. Although 20nm memory could solve this matter, it would not be available until the second half of next year, which means late after the immediate supply deadlock.

Capacity of SSDs has increased in 2009, culminating in 512GB solid-state drives that were used in making various systems, but impact on prices was not as substantial as desired, with few exceptions. The price of a 256GB flash drive could reach $1,000 depending on its performance and estimated longevity. Drives with 128GB capacities have lower prices, near $500.


  • Share

 

Readers Comments