SEOUL, KOREA- Amid worries over a slowdown of the smartphone market, the prices of NAND flash memory chips, a core component of smartphones, recently plunged. This is the first time this year for the NAND flash memory prices, which have continued to rise steadily, to mark a sharp decline.
According to Taiwan's semiconductor e-commerce site DRAM Exchange, the fixed trading price of a 64-GB 8G x 8 MLC stood at $5.02 in late July, down 50 cents or 9.06 percent compared to two weeks ago. This was the first time this year for the prices of 64-GB chips to decline by more than 9 percent. The prices of 32-GB 4G x 8 MLC chips also fell by 22 cents or 6.15 percent to $3.36.
Key factors behind the sharp decline in the prices of these products include a slowdown in the sales growth of smartphones, the largest market for NAND flash memories. The smartphone market is slowing as the uptake rate of smartphones increased in industrialized markets such as the U.S. and Europe, producing a negative impact on the demand for NAND flash memory chips.
Another factor is that an increasing number of chip makers turned their DRAM production facilities toward the ones for NAND flash memories.