SSD Prices To Increase Because of NAND Shortages

If you are looking into getting a solid state drive the time is now. It appears that the basic rule of supply and demand is going to drive the prices of SSDs through the roof here very soon. There are a few different reasons for this. One of the major factors is Samsung’s Note 7 disaster, with other manufacturers as well as Samsung having increased production of Smartphones (many of which use NAND flash), to fill the gap. The second big reason is just the success of the SSD market. In Q2 of 2016 the SSD market achieved 33.705 million units (nearly 10 million units and 41.2% year-over-year higher and up 9.5% from Q1). This means that the demand is ever increasing, but manufacturing capabilities are not.

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As a result of this, DRAMeXchange reported that the average price of MLC SSDs rose this quarter between 6%-10%, while TLC SSDs also rose 6%-9%. NAND vendors are recording record revenues (DRAMeXchange reports a 19.6% increase) and are banking on the low supply to increase pricing. Many analysts are predicting SSD prices to increase 20-25% over the next few months, and it will likely be 2018 before prices are driven back down.

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