Apple Announces Long-Term Flash Memory Agreements

[MacRumors]

Apple announced today that it has reached long term supply agreements with a number of memory supply companies including Hynix, Intel, Micro, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba.

Apple will prepay up to $1.25 billion for flash memory over the next three months. The agreements secure a supply of NAND flash memory through 2010.

"We want to be able to produce as many of our wildly popular iPods as the market demands," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

Apple now uses Flash memory in two of the iPod models: the iPod shuffle and the iPod nano. Recent reports have hinted that Apple was seeking out more suppliers for the needed Flash memory components for their shuffle/nano iPod products. The traditional 5th Generation Video-capable iPod still uses a hard drive for storage.

 

[Lacero]

Thats good news!

Going with different flash suppliers to prevent any anti-trust issues from cropping up in the future.

Can't wait for the iPod invisio!


edit: I beat iGary!!!!11!

 

[iGary]

Apple will prepay up to $1.25 billion for flash memory over the next three months.

PREPAY.

 

[Lacero]

PREPAY.

Hopefully not all of it at current market rates.

 

[AoWolf]

Wow 1.25 Billion. I hope the iPod boom last till 2010.

 

[sushi]

Wow 1.25 Billion. I hope the iPod boom last till 2010.

By then we may see laptops using flash memory as part of their storage capability.

Sushi

 

[m-dogg]

Cool - When can I place my order for a 100GB flash memory iPod?!?!



But seriously...when?

 

[VicMacs]

this should help the R&D part of those companies but why not invest in RAM? so that they dont sell it so frickin expensive!?

 

[alywa]

Not just iPod

I have to think that laptops / desktops are the bigger reason for this huge flash investment. Instant boot, solid-state built-in backup, yeah that would be sweet. Just imagine how useful this could be.

-alywa

 

[bigandy]

wow that's some serious cash advance.

why won't they give it to me?

 

[MattG]

Nifty

When that mega-capacity Nano comes out, I'll be waiting in line

 

[Sun Baked]

PREPAY.

The strange things you have to do to get a slice of the production at a decent price these days.

Big chunk of money today, but it should get Apple out of any future problems like their recent Samsung Flash Memory legal problems.

Hopefully handling it as a PrePay will keep the lawsuits at bay, unlike the old R&D investment deals.

Sure the price will be lower than market in the future, but in reality Apple has already pre-paid a portion of their future supply.

Also helps out the companies by giving them some money today to make use of for R&D.

Edit: Of course they will probably sue anyways, especially if Apple continues to secure flash memory at a price much lower than most other MP3 makers.

 

[andiwm2003]

flash based ibooks and powerbooks here we come. they a certainly planning only ipod stuff till 2010. this is bigger than that!

 

[nagromme]

By then we may see laptops using flash memory as part of their storage capability.

I'm waiting for just that With any luck, I'll only buy one more HD laptop!

A flash-based sub-subnotebook would be great. I'd accept reduced storage and other compromises. Just put OS X in my pocket! I'll plug into any old keyboard and display when I get to my destination.

 

[camomac]

maybe this will also mean that they are seriously considering a new shuttle design to go with all that memory...

 

[shadowmoses]

This means Apple have big Plans for flash memory, I am sure we will see it in high end intel mac's imagine how sweet it would be to have a powerbook with a 4gb Flash boot drive,

SHadow

 

[dernhelm]

flash based ibooks and powerbooks here we come. they a certainly planning only ipod stuff till 2010. this is bigger than that!

A full-flash based laptop would absolutely ROCK! Get startup times down to microseconds (wake from sleep is pretty close now, my PB wakes in just a little over a second) and you've got an APPLIANCE not just a COMPUTER.

 

[Apple]

Huge Hardrives baby!!!

I cant wait until were talkin Terabytes on laptops.

Kind of like mailnation.net

 

[AidenShaw]

bandwidth?

A full-flash based laptop would absolutely ROCK! Get startup times down to microseconds (wake from sleep is pretty close now, my PB wakes in just a little over a second) and you've got an APPLIANCE not just a COMPUTER.

Flash has a hard time keeping up with spinning drives in the MB/sec race.

You won't get usec wakeups just from switching to flash.

You'll get much better battery life, however!

 

[GetSome681]

It's amazing how many of you have no idea what you're talking about.

Flash memory, in its current form, will never be used to replace hard drives or RAM. The current forms of flash memory all have a finite lifespan dictated by a certain number of writes/rewrites. Think of how many times files are altered in any way on your hard drive or how many times the contents of your system memory change. This has nothing to do with some magical implementation in powerbooks/etc.

For your viewing pleasure:
http://www.commsdesign.com/design_corner/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16502199

 

[CanadaRAM]

PREPAY.

Apple's got a bazillion dolars of cash in hand. I'm sure the prices are heavily discounted, and all the accountants have done their Present Value calculations to make sure Apple's rate of return on the money will be well in excess of what they can make investing it.

Sounds like a smart move, tie up their supply, make it harder for competitors buying on the sport market, be able to develop future product with assured component availability..

 

[iGary]

Apple's got a bazillion dolars of cash in hand. I'm sure the prices are heavily discounted, and all the accountants have done their Present Value calculations to make sure Apple's rate of return on the money will be well in excess of what they can make investing it.

Sounds like a smart move, tie up their supply, make it harder for competitors buying on the sport market, be able to develop future product with assured component availability..

Yeah I know, but that just goes to show you how important keeping their supply chain filled is. That's almost 25% of their on hand cash.

 

[Macmaniac]

Thats a huge chunk of change, although Apple has over $5 billion in the bank, so this makes it a good investment, considering how popular the iPod has been. I doubt we will see a flash based laptop from Apple, it does not yet make good economic sense.

 

[syklee26]

you are missing a possibility

It's amazing how many of you have no idea what you're talking about.

Flash memory, in its current form, will never be used to replace hard drives or RAM. The current forms of flash memory all have a finite lifespan dictated by a certain number of writes/rewrites. Think of how many times files are altered in any way on your hard drive or how many times the contents of your system memory change. This has nothing to do with some magical implementation in powerbooks/etc.

while it is true that flash will never completely replace hard drive, it is possible to have flash drive installed along with hard drive. hard drive for operation purpose and big flash drive just to store media files to minimize battery usage.

 

[Lacero]

The flash memory could be used to store OSX system files for fast startups with the HD used to store temporary files. Hot-file clustering to increase battery life and reliability.