Soaring SSD prices could hobble NAND flash industry with reduced demand, Phison CEO cautions

Intel SSD
(Image credit: Intel)

Although NAND manufacturers have recently been enjoying high revenues thanks to higher prices, Phison CEO K. S. Pua says further price hikes could seriously reduce demand (via Digitimes). Instead of allowing demand to outstrip supply, Pua says manufacturers should try and meet demand with increased production.

The recent price increases for NAND flash, and by extension SSDs, is a reaction to the experience NAND manufacturers had in 2022 and 2023. While the COVID-19 pandemic fueled strong demand for computer components, this demand significantly fell once things (mostly) got back to normal. But NAND companies like Samsung and Micron didn't anticipate such a sharp decline in demand, and so had way more supply than they actually needed. Consequently, prices had to come down in order to boost demand and offload all the excess NAND.

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Matthew Connatser

Matthew Connatser is a freelancing writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes articles about CPUs, GPUs, SSDs, and computers in general.

  • usertests
    And the cycle continues once more.
    Reply
  • Giroro
    When the soda industry duopoly recently doubled/tripled prices (blaming COVID), they lost about a third of their sales due to a drop in demand. The net result? Massive increase in profit margin and decreased distribution costs (and some speculate the eventual collapse of the fast food industry). Now that the customer's limits have been tested, soda will probably never be reasonably priced again.

    Will SSDs see the same boost in profit that far exceeds the drop in demand? That depends... do addicted customers habitually buy SSDs multiple times a day to get a dose of caffeine?
    Reply