SSD price hike hits buyers hard, double-digit increase on the way

[DragonSlayer101]

In context: Solid-state drive buyers could be in for a rough ride as client SSD prices are expected to see a double-digit rise in Q2, following a substantial increase in the first quarter. While the price hike in the first three months of this year has already impacted consumers by adding significant costs to their PC builds, things are only expected to get worse.

According to a report from IT market analysis firm TrendForce, client SSD prices increased 23-28 percent in Q1 and are projected to go up a further 10-15 percent in the current quarter despite subdued demand in the retail market.

The report, which claims NAND Flash contract prices could increase 13-18 percent in Q2, 2024, also provides a comparative analysis of price trends for several different NAND flash products, including mobile NAND (eMMC and UFS), client and enterprise SSDs, and 3D NAND flash wafers (TLC and QLC).

Also read: Bad News, SSDs Are Getting More Expensive

It is worth noting here that enterprise SSD prices surged significantly last year, with the fourth quarter alone seeing a 15 percent increase. The upward trend in pricing continued in Q1, 2024, with prices increasing by a further 23-28 percent in keeping with client SSDs. This quarter, enterprise SSD prices are tipped to jump further 20-25 percent, fueled by heavy demand from CSPs in North America and China.

In sharp contrast to the enterprise SSD market, client SSDs are reportedly seeing "a more cautious buying strategy," with some PC OEMs said to be reducing their 2Q24 orders. The substantial price increases will likely further encourage vendors to cut their orders in the second half of the year. Despite the cautiousness in the market, NAND Flash wafer contract prices are expected to continue to rise thanks to manufacturers that are "keen on reaching profit targets quickly."

In the mobile NAND segment, eMMC demand is predominantly driven by Chinese smartphone brands, while the UFS market is upbeat due to increasing demand in India and Southeast Asia. This is expected to increase both eMMC and UFS contract prices by 10-15 percent in Q2, 2024.

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SSD price hike hits buyers hard, double-digit increase on the way

 

[yRaz]

Samsung: we need to make more money
Also samsung: why don't we reduce production to increase our margins?
Samsung again: great! Let's do it!
All other producers of flash: Thanks for increasing our margins Samsung! We'll keep our production low, too.

 

[godrilla]

Samsung: we need to make more money
Also samsung: why don't we reduce production to increase our margins?
Samsung again: great! Let's do it!
All other producers of flash: Thanks for increasing our margins Samsung! We'll keep our production low, too.

Bummer the price the 990 pro 2 terabyte is $219 that's more than double than the lowest price in q4 2023 and $60 more than just last quarter.
Loving steam for allowing me to saturate my old drives.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

What I really enjoy about the price hikes is the fact that the inventory on hand at Micro Center simply just jumped in price because it was reported that prices are going up. I had just picked up for $206 (it was priced at $199 a couple weeks before, but they ran out of inventory) at 4TB SSD right around mid January. They had quite a few of these drives on hand at the time I got one. I wanted to get two, but didn't have the funds for two at the time. So I watched Micro Center's inventory on the drive in question. They sold a couple here and there, but still had a ample inventory of them in stock. By the time I acquired funds and was able to get another one the price went from $206 up to $289. They didn't bring in anymore stock at a higher price, they just jacked up the price of the current inventory because prices are going up.

That same 4TB SSD is now at $309.99. In just 3 short months the price has gone up $100+. That's what...a nice 50% increase in price. No thanks.

 

[mrtraver]

Interesting that the 2 TB drives I have been interested in never really dropped in price last year, despite all the articles I read that prices should drop, yet they are skyrocketing now. Did Nvidia take over or something? Looks like I am stuck with this 500 Gb SSD for the foreseeable future.

 

[daffy duck]

Smart people bought up big last year. Please don't be a fool and indulge these scumbags. Let their products rot on the shelf.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I wouldn't worry too much, let's see the prices in 2 or 3 years , when plenty of options at 4TB , that are good enough . These prices always seem to cycle. Plus manufacturing techniques are getting better.

What we are probably seeing is lots of contract sales to AI and LLM to swiftly process stuff , so deciding to make cream fleecing consumers .

Ie same as Airlines segregating the market - if the big guys take up 80 to 90% , why not screw the consumers hey

 

[Watzupken]

Such predictions will affect consumer spending, so I am thinking if the motive of such prediction is more informational, or stirring people to quickly make a purchase decision. Prices of NAND and RAM are cyclical, and there will be ups and downs anyway.

 

[James Ryan]

It didn't take long...
I bought a drive for 179 a few months back and decided to buy a couple more of the same one yesterday.
It was 299....

I decided I don't need another drive and cleared off some junk files...

 

[godrilla]

Such predictions will affect consumer spending, so I am thinking if the motive of such prediction is more informational, or stirring people to quickly make a purchase decision. Prices of NAND and RAM are cyclical, and there will be ups and downs anyway.

Let's wait for Black Friday although I did buy the 2 terabyte 990 pro on Launch Black Friday 2022 for $289.99 which dropped to as low as 60% to $100 the very next Black Friday. Last year was something out of the oredery in terms of flash pricing. That I recall was facilitated by 2 events.

1) Post Pandemic oversupply was the potential energy for the movement.
2) Samsung's flash drive life degradation public outcry was the major factor which caused flash prices to drop by half overnight and due to my point in number 1 of oversupply of other vendors had to follow suite from the market leader to stay competitive. ( Kinetic energy the pushing factor)

 

[Fastturtle]

When I ordered my 2x 2TB SSD drives in August, I figured the price was as low as they'd get - less then $90 ea plus I got a pair of 32GB Flash drives as part of the deal. Both those 2TB drives are now over $250 ea and don't even get me started on the two 32GB Flash drives that are now priced at $50 each that I got for free.

Thankfully, I'm already maxed out on disk drives with 12x Spinning Rust for my bulk storage that I wont be buying anything unless a drive fails and that's not likely anytime soon.

 

[Marco Mint]

I thought this might happen and just before Christmas I saw that the 4TB Seagate M.2 Firecuda 530's were on sale at Amazon over £130 less than the usual price, so snapped two of them up.
One's currently in this PC and the other's still in its box. Undecided on where to make use of it but it will be used.

 

[Starfals]

Yeah, that's why I got the 990 pro from Samsung earlier. I got the 4TB one for 300 euro, now...? 450-500. Holy cow. It's literally impossible to buy at these prices. Thanks but no thanks. Stores seem to be on it too. They also add extra, on top of Samsung... I see them online selling for cheaper, but I do prefer local (in my country) stores.

Same thing for the Kingston drives that I got earlier. They all got 100 bucks more expensive. Just when getting an SSD didn't cost a fortune, when people could just enjoy fast computers with decent prices (still way more overpriced than a regular HDD tho.. 1TB HDD vs SSD 1TB) this had to happen. Oh well, we are going back to 2017 levels of prices, in 2024. Nice.

 

[Arun Kumar]

It's a shame, when all other PC components prices are fair enough, SSD price is being hiked. As consumers we have the power and choice "Not to Buy".

 

[JupitersMoon]

Greedflation at it's finest.

 

[OortCloud]

This SSD price increase doom-mongering has been going on for about 6 months now.

 

[yannus]

Memory market has been known for price fixing for quite a while, without any significant actions from the authorities. Sadly, I believe most markets are like this.

 

[godrilla]

Update, just stumbled upon WD_BLACK 4TB SN850X NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 7,300 MB/s - WDS400T2X0E which costs $298 for 4 terabyte
$156.99 for 2 terabyte size
and $84.99 for 1 terabyte size fyi.
via Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...ail-20&ascsubtag=01i52w1ac1MVZr3sXMOQojV&th=1