The market for solid-state drives (SSD), promising to replace standard hard drives in PC applications, will not experience robust growth until at least two years later, according to Simon Chen, chairman of A-Data Technology.
The development of controllers used in SSDs are becoming mature in 2010, but the current prices for NAND flash chips are still too high to accelerate the adoption of the next-generation computer storage system, said Chen.
Chen said NAND flash prices have dropped from high levels in the fourth quarter of 2009, but the price correction has been weak.
He remarked that Apple may still be negotiating prices with its NAND flash suppliers, as it still expects prices to drop further, Chen noted.
Apple in the past usually would to re-stock its NAND flash inventory for new products between March and April, but this year it has not yet struck any supply deals with its chip suppliers, industry sources have indicated.
According to report, contract quotes for mainstream 16Gb multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chips stayed high at US$4.06 on average in the first half of April, while prices for 32Gb parts reached US$7.54.