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Apple Rumored to Be After Samsung Flash Memory
Steve Nixon writes "An unconfirmed report today from Reuters quotes an industry analyst firm iSuppli as saying that Apple plans to buy as much as 40 percent of Samsung's second-half flash memory output.
The NAND flash memory cards will be used in a new, 4 GB iPod Mini, which Apple would release in time for the holiday shopping season, the report stated. The current version of the 4 GB mini contains a hard drive. Apple's iPod Shuffle uses flash memory."
More info here
Looks like Samsung is wooing Apple with a price reduction. Samsung also makes mp3 players. Seems like they would hoard the memory for themselves. Maybe they have figured out the sweet spot, in terms of profit, of how much to keep for themselves and how much to sell to the best selling brand.
I call FUD. I jog with my 20GB iPod every day, and I've never had a problem.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
This has been brought up in photography circles for quite some time. A surprising number of people were adverse to flash based Compact Flash (CF) cards because of this.
BUT - you get unlimited reads, lots and lots of writes (about 10^6 with modern cards) and the write longevity can be improved by buffering algorithms. I wouldn't use flash for a swap file, but unless your taste in music changes every 30 seconds, flash memory should be just fine.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
...which is exactly what Apple does, doesn't it?
Apple almost never drops their prices, they just make things better at the current price point... remember, $300 5 years ago got you a black and white 5 GB iPod... look what it gets you now.
I bet it will be redesigned a little, but the price is going to stay where it is.
Because each of those 4GB flashcards cost like $200+ in themselves. Apple will mostly get them discounted and you'll not likely pay $200 just for the internal, but if they put even two of those things in an iPod Mini, it would have to cost the consumer at least $400 (for an 8GB player!) in order for Apple not not go bankrupt over it.
Rumor from the grapevine has is that Samsung approached Apple and offered to match the cost of the tiny harddrive that are currently in the Ipodmini. So, Apple really isn't losing any money per unit. Then again, Apple really isn't going to gain any either. The big benefit is mostly consumer based: longer battery life, no moving parts, smaller space. The big benefit for Samsung is that they get a major push for a lot of these into the market, and force out their competitor at the same time. Then they make a name for themselves and get other companies like Creative, Dell or even Microsoft to purchase, once they can afford to reduce costs. When can we start seeing these things in laptops?