Apple flash memory greed sparks industry shortages

You have to spare a thought for the plight of those poor flash memory vendors, not only are they in a market where the spot price goes up and down, but Apple’s greedy shoppers just can’t get enough of Cupertino’s shiny new flash-based toys…iPhone, iPods nano and touch, SSD drives for Macs, future tablets, yadda-yadda-ya…

News today claims there’s a shortage of flash memory components caused by (you guessed it) Apple gobbling up huge quantities of production from the top tier makers.

This is causing Taiwan’s memory module makers to diversify their NAND flash supplies to minimise procurement risk, tells Digitimes. That’s because the major makers – Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, Micron and Hynix Semiconductor “favour demand for Apple devices,” the report explains.

Demand is expected to climb 81 per cent this year, though manufacturers are conservative about investing in further production facilities just yet. Oh, and as Apple’s impact is felt across the market, prices are climbing up up up (well, by up to 14 percent on some modules).

Wonder what Apple’s beginning to stockpile all that memory for, eh, eh?