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Laptop SSD Capacity To Remain Flat As NAND Flash Dearth Causes Prices To Rise (computerworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the steady-as-we-go dept.

Lucas123 writes from a report via Computerworld: Laptop manufacturers aren't likely to offer higher capacity standard SSDs in their machines this year as a shortage of NAND flash is pushing prices higher this year. At the same time, nearly half of all laptops shipped this year will have SSDs versus HDDs, according to a new report from DRAMeXchange. The contract prices for multi-level cell (MLC) SSDs supplied to the PC manufacturing industry for those laptops are projected to go up by 12% to 16% compared with the final quarter of 2016; prices of triple-level cell (TLC) SSDs are expected to rise by 10% to 16% sequentially. "The tight NAND flash supply and sharp price hikes for SSDs will likely discourage PC-[manufacturers] from raising storage capacity," said Alan Chen, a senior research manager of DRAMeXchange. "Therefore, the storage specifications for mainstream PC [...] SSDs are expected to remain in the 128GB and 256GB [range]."

5 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. That's not a problem for Apple by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're still using 5400 RPM HDDs in their low-end-yet-too-expensive Macs.

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    1. Re:That's not a problem for Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sure, that's my right to buy something else. Know what else's my right? Bitching about how over priced these systems are. Hell, the trash can pro is still starting at 3K with 4+ year old hardware.

  2. [tinfoil]Artificial scarcity ![/tinfoil] by thegreatbob · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is it more reasonable to assume that the markets have legitimately drained the supply, or that the whole industry is keeping a lid on it? SSDs seem to have become nigh ubiquitous on the convertible laptop/tablets, and an extremely common upgrade for even low-end laptops... Also, older news on this (i see things dating from Q4'16) offered the suggestion that relief might be coming by now. https://www.theregister.co.uk/...

    At any rate, let's just hope that as many manufacturers as possible survive as long as possible to avoid establishing one of them as the WD of NAND. Hopefully things will stay competitive for a while longer.

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    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  3. Re:I'll stick with HDDs for now by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've had SSD's exclusively for 8 years now. No failures. Of course I never bought OCZ pieces of shit.

    When any hard drive fails you can lose everything immediately and all at once. That's why you have backups. You have backups, right?

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  4. The 11 ms barrier by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, today's 5400 RPM drives are not the same as yesterday's. Increased density makes them much faster than they used to be

    An increase in density increases throughput, not latency. It still takes the same amount of time (up to 60000÷5400 = 11 ms) to spin a particular sector toward the head, plus however long it took the head to move to the appropriate cylinder.