Given the success of the iPod, Apple has been the biggest consumer for NAND flash memory globally and now iSuppli analyst Michael Yang has come out with his crystal ball and predicted that Apple is all set to strain the NAND flash market yet again in 2010. Apparently the growing demand for iPhone and Apple competitors trying to match up with the Jesus phone would put pressure on the NAND supplies.
Yang expects a healthy 30%+ jump in iPhone shipments this year, taking the numbers to 33million, compared to 25.1 million last year. Yang’s estimate that ‘An average of 35.2GB of NAND will be used in each iPhone sold in 2010’ makes me wonder if he just predicted a 64GB iPhone 4th gen in 2010? Not a great guess, but we just have an analyst saying this (indirectly though).
While ebook readers and have a healthy growth, they do not threaten the NAND market with roughly just 2GB of memory going in each of them, however the growing race for tablet can be a worry. If the iPad sees growth curve similar to the iPhone / iPod – the NAND flash market would strain further, predicts iSuppli.