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Where Will Apple Get Flash Memory Now?
An anonymous reader writes "EE Times examines whether Samsung could be about to control the equipment output of Apple by putting the Cupertino company on a rationed supply of NAND flash as the non-volatile memory goes into short supply in 2013. The analysis argues that Apple may need to put down billions of dollars of cash to fund a guaranteed NAND flash supply plan, something that Samsung did in the middle of the last decade."
Because Wikipedia: "Anobit Technologies, Ltd. is an Israeli fabless designer of flash memory controllers." For the reading impaired, this means that they design memory controllers, not memory chips, and they only design them, they don't make them.
Well the story assumes that Apple hasn't already secured their supply. This story from 2005 reports how Apple made 5-year deals with 5 different manufacturers to secure their supply. The deals have since run out but it doesn't take a grand strategist to guess that Apple may have negotiated new deals. Remember Apple is very secretive so that may not announced to the world all their plans. Also, Apple has been known to front money to their suppliers in exchange for guaranteed supplies. Today they are sitting on billions in cash.
Please rtf the original article. The deal with 5 different manufacturers is why Apple will find it difficult to source the supply in 2013. They schemed the manufacturers and always projected they needed way more than they purchased. This lead to oversupply in the market and lower prices. So the 5 year, 5 manufacturer deal fell off the cliff. Therefore Apple in 2013 will have to put up billions as opposed to 1.25 billion and they probably have to buy all of the nand they think they need. Not just project and then play one manufacturer against another. Therefore Apple will possibly pre-pay and possibly pre-pay much higher prices and will also need to buy it. They will probably not make as much money on the NAND but still a significant margin.
And the parent post is modded informative! The best of slashdot. This post needs to be modded down into negative territory.