Detail

The consequences of the increase in prices of NAND flash memory, the basis of any SSD storage, are beginning to be felt in consumer markets. Wholesale prices for solid-state drives and related storage devices have skyrocketed.

Chinese industry experts emphasize that the solid-state drive market is ready to combat the negative financial results observed in the last few quarters. For several years, manufacturers have been “bathed” by ever-increasing order volumes, increasing their profits. But this was followed by, as the source put it, “a wave of aggressive production cuts.” Manufacturers have started to increase NAND flash memory prices, and this increase has already taken effect.

TLC, a type of NAND flash memory, reportedly reached $25.5 per unit for 256 gigabytes and $48.5 per unit for 512 gigabytes on the wholesale market. This is much higher than in previous quarters. Consumer storage devices will now see a significant price increase.

Manufacturers such as Phison and Western Digital decided to increase the price of their products, announcing a 55 percent increase in the price of NAND, and this happened gradually over several quarters.

Companies say the move is necessary to be sustainable in the future, as lower demand combined with supply chain disruptions will erode financial results and higher prices are the only path to recovery.

What does this mean for the average consumer? For starters, solid state drive (SSD) and hard disk drive (HDD) prices are expected to rise rapidly, and this is already evident in the markets.