haha look at 64GB flash.... that thing goes for 255 on ebay... and thats without shipping.... from THAILAND!!
What does that mean? That means this isnt going to be happening for a while.... No flash based iPods until 2009
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Flash Shortage due to iPod and iPhone?
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haha look at 64GB flash.... that thing goes for 255 on ebay... and thats without shipping.... from THAILAND!!
What does that mean? That means this isnt going to be happening for a while.... No flash based iPods until 2009
offwidafairies
macrumors 6502a
JGowan
macrumors 68000
I think it's high time Apple build its own Flash memory factories and control their own destiny. While everyone else fights for the 8GB and 16GB flash drives, we could be sporting some serious mojo.
In theory, quantity sales can produce economies of scale, lowering prices, but there are forces that pull in the opposite direction. Shortages of parts that raise component costs can increase the total price, until suppliers adjust to meet demand. And as long as sales stay high, Apple may have little incentive to lower prices even if manufacturing costs go down, until/unless competition forces them to do so.
No... not if they cannot manufacture enough to match demand or the fact that it is selling so well is a good indicator that you are pricing it about right, if not to low.
SiliconAddict
macrumors 603
This is in the same realm as people who said Apple should start developing their own CPU to control their own destiny. Some people don't have a frame of reference to base such insane comments on. Do you know how much it costs to build such a plant? R&D smaller fab processes? Etc? Etc? Etc?
Belly-laughs
macrumors 6502a
Don´t worry. As others have correctly stated Apple has already made deals on current and close future purchases with manufacturers, at set price. Good for Apple, bad for competitors.
Very clever on Apples behalf, because they are almost monopolising(correct spelling, I live in Australia) the market by creating artificial barriers to entry 🙂
I hope we still get to see the solid state macbooks soon though 😛
DeanCorp
I hope we still get to see the solid state macbooks soon though 😛
DeanCorp
JGowan
macrumors 68000
I suppose I thought it might be possible due to the fact that very recently (maybe WWDC, I forget), Steve Jobs specifically spoke of of the factories that Apple built to produce the iPhone. Seemed possible that if they could build a factory for iPhones then they could build their own flash. I don't think it sounds so "insane".
Genghis Khan
macrumors 65816
this is the first step of getting flash memory into computers...with iPhone, and predictably iPod soon, the market for flash memory will be larger...meaning it will get cheaper
just wait for someone to open another factory to accommodate for this shortage😉
just wait for someone to open another factory to accommodate for this shortage😉
Are you kidding - Shortage - call it starvation
The average cell phone has 60mb of memory in it all called NAND Flash - the IPHONE has either 4GB or 8GB of NAND Flash - so take it as a average of 6GB in a IPHONE just to be on the low end - as we all know most people are buying the 8GB - well at 6GB that is 1000 times the memory in a normal cell phone - in fact the amount of memory that will go into just the 5 million IPHONES that Apple will build between now and the end of the year is the same amount of NAND memory that would be used to build 500 MILLION - yes 500 Million normal cell phones - then you add the IPOD - NANO - all the other MP3 players digital cameras - the new Samsung laptop that has no hard disk only NAND memory as a replacement - now think a minute - LG, Motorola, Samsung, Erickson - all the other Cell phone companies are going to have to come up with something to stay in the game against the IPHONE - It takes 2 - 4 years to build a factory to product these parts at a cost of about 3 BILLION dollars to do it - Shortage, oh you can count on it - its alreadu here - I have been in this market 33 years- brace yourself for a major storm
The average cell phone has 60mb of memory in it all called NAND Flash - the IPHONE has either 4GB or 8GB of NAND Flash - so take it as a average of 6GB in a IPHONE just to be on the low end - as we all know most people are buying the 8GB - well at 6GB that is 1000 times the memory in a normal cell phone - in fact the amount of memory that will go into just the 5 million IPHONES that Apple will build between now and the end of the year is the same amount of NAND memory that would be used to build 500 MILLION - yes 500 Million normal cell phones - then you add the IPOD - NANO - all the other MP3 players digital cameras - the new Samsung laptop that has no hard disk only NAND memory as a replacement - now think a minute - LG, Motorola, Samsung, Erickson - all the other Cell phone companies are going to have to come up with something to stay in the game against the IPHONE - It takes 2 - 4 years to build a factory to product these parts at a cost of about 3 BILLION dollars to do it - Shortage, oh you can count on it - its alreadu here - I have been in this market 33 years- brace yourself for a major storm
Sorry
Sorry to add my 2 cents it is not going to take 1 factory it is going to take atleast 5 - 10 new clean room factorys - at a total cost of about 30 Billion dollars and a min of 6 - 8 years to complete them and be able to get the proper equipment installed
Sorry to add my 2 cents it is not going to take 1 factory it is going to take atleast 5 - 10 new clean room factorys - at a total cost of about 30 Billion dollars and a min of 6 - 8 years to complete them and be able to get the proper equipment installed