Taiwanese technology site Digitimes reports that the prices of NAND flash memory are currently increasing. NAND flash memory is used in many smartphones but also in Solid State Disk (SSD) drives. Due to the increasing popularity of smartphones from e.g. Apple and Samsung the demand of flash has gone up. Combined with the fact that NAND manufacturers have cut production to keep the prices from tumbling a price increase or at least price stabilization is expected, which will likely mean that the expected fast price decrease of SSD drives will have to wait a little.
On the website DRAMeXchange it's possible to monitor prices of several types of memory. DRAM is currently so cheap that major Taiwanese DRAM chipmakers are planning layoffs and mandatory unpaid days off. To avoid the same situation, NAND flash memory manufacturers have reduced their output. Signs of price increases are also there, contract prices for 32 Gb MLC flash chips went up 8.6% (at $2.41) and the same chips with 64 Gb capacity became 9% ($3.50 - $4.60) more expensive.
It is expected that the major chip manufacturers will continue with their limited output strategy in the last quarter of 2012, and also that prices will continue to rise this month.
