Rumor: SanDisk and Kingston Technology to drop memory card prices

Competition between flash memory market leader SanDisk and rival Kingston Technology may heat up this year. The two companies are reportedly waging a little price warfare, with both planning price drops for USB drives, memory cards and more.

The suggestion comes straight from Taiwanese rumor mill DigiTimes, which sourced the usual anonymous insiders.

According to the site, word slipped last week that Kingston would soon implement a 15 percent price cut to NAND flash products in order to “coordinate chip suppliers’ shift to more advanced process technologies for production growth.” Flash memory devices are slowly moving to new 2Xnm and 19nm versions which outshine current chips’ processing abilities, the sources explained.

Not to be outdone, SanDisk may follow suit with a similar across-the-board price drop to its own memory storage devices. The Milpitas, CA company rules the memory card market with its popular USB flash drives and secure digital (SD) cards. The decision is both an attempt to stay competitive with a rival and an attempt to make room for new stock by pushing out the old.

On the other side of the storage coin, HDD prices ballooned last fall after flooding in Thailand disrupted supply lines and shut down factories. Japan’s NAND industry overcame its own catastrophe in March when an 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck several cities. Flash memory makers recovered quickly thanks to a more flexible and less centralized supply line. (via DigiTimes)