The supply shortage of NAND flash in the third quarter of 2016 will exacerbate in the fourth quarter due to higher demand in the smartphone and solid-state drive (SSD) industries, according to the latest report from DRAMeXchange.
The short supply, coupled with strong demand, also will contribute to rising prices of NAND flash wafers and memory cards until the end of 2016. DRAMeXchange also expects prices to rise for eMMC, eMCP and SSD products.
In addition, demand from SSD manufacturers continues to increase as SSDs approach price parity with HDDs. DRAMeXchange expects the SSD adoption rate for notebook computers worldwide will exceed 30 percent for the first time, reaching nearly 33 percent, in 2016.
Demand also is growing significantly for enterprise-grade SSDs in the second half of 2016. Demand has been mainly driven by server manufacturers and data centers in the U.S. and China.
The message from Simms is to take stock provisions if needed, plus taking into account the volatile $ currency rate we would urge our customers to order additional stock now.