Time to buy an SSD? Samsung plans to raise NAND flash prices by 20% per quarter

[midian182]

Bottom line: PC owners might be wise to buy themselves a new SSD now rather than waiting any longer. According to a new report, Samsung, the world's largest manufacturer of flash memory, wants to increase the wholesale price of its NAND flash by up to 20% per quarter for at least the next two quarters.

An oversupply of DRAM and NAND in South Korea this year has seen SSD prices fall by over 30% since January. In April, Samsung confirmed it was preparing to reduce its chip output in the hope that scaling back production would keep prices from dropping any further. The company slashed even more production in the third quarter to help address the chip glut.

Samsung said in its quarterly earnings report last month that it had observed indications that the chip market was recovering as demand stabilized and customers introduced new products. As such, it expects the company's memory business to keep improving over the coming months.

We also heard in October that analysts and manufacturers had begun reporting rising revenue due to increasing DRAM and NAND shipments in the third quarter of 2023, suggesting storage and memory prices were about to rise.

Market research firm Trendforce reports that Samsung has already increased wholesale prices of its NAND chips by 10% to 20% this quarter, which could lead to consumer SSD prices jumping 5% to 13% by the end of the year.

Trendforce believes Samsung will continue increasing the wholesale price by 20% per quarter for at least another two quarters, meaning vendors could be paying up to 44% more by the middle of 2024. Consumers won't be handing that much extra for their SSDs, but such an increase would still drive prices up around 15%.

Being the biggest flash memory manufacturer means that where Samsung goes, others follow; thus, we can expect other manufacturers, most of whom also slashed production earlier this year, to start increasing their wholesale prices as well. The bottom line is that if you're thinking about buying an SSD, it would probably be wise to get one sooner rather than later.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100728-time-buy-ssd-samsung-plans-raise-nand-flash.html

 

[Dimitriid]

Ah yes, late capitalism at is finest: Worried about regulators accusing your company of price fixing? No need to worry: Become a massive behemot that controls a good 20-30% of all of the supply of your product (Memory in this case) and just decide not to obey market forces and intentionally constrain supply to elevate prices for no good reason other than you just want all of the money and potential growth to swallow up even more competitors, become a defacto monopoly of a commodity and just take over entire worldwide economies in service to you since nobody thought of regulating at the scale you're at 100 years ago when most regulations were passed.

 

[redgarl]

The 980 2TB was around 100$ not long ago. I got myself a second one, not regretting it.

 

[redgarl]

Ah yes, late capitalism at is finest: Worried about regulators accusing your company of price fixing? No need to worry: Become a massive behemot that controls a good 20-30% of all of the supply of your product (Memory in this case) and just decide not to obey market forces and intentionally constrain supply to elevate prices for no good reason other than you just want all of the money and potential growth to swallow up even more competitors, become a defacto monopoly of a commodity and just take over entire worldwide economies in service to you since nobody thought of regulating at the scale you're at 100 years ago when most regulations were passed.

It is all about trying to pay for as little as possible as a customer. If you don't have a need, then don't bother, but if you do, then think about it or eat the additional cost.

 

[rmcrys]

Ah yes, late capitalism at is finest: Worried about regulators accusing your company of price fixing? No need to worry

Everyone can give their contribution: not buying.

At the end another manufacturer will want to take those sales and make good prices, on the long run Samsung will lose market and someone will sell more. As ATM many manufacturers have good products, it’s an opportunity.

I have myself enough storage and no need in the near future.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Only a problem if you are stupid enough to buy Scamsung. It won't happen because they have so much competition and they are largely irrelevant these days as they provide poor value and only rusted on fanboys would even consider them.

 

[VariableSpike]

Classic Samsung, a case in point as to why having an organisation that is "too big too fail" and effectively can hold your government ransom is never a good sign, just end up with a company who does what it wants no matter what, probably will be eons until we see someone sort out SK's chaebols though

 

[godrilla]

Last month when this rumor started the 990 pro 4 terabytes was selling for $339 now it dropped by about 20% to $279. Quickly buy it before it goes down I mean up!

Luckily we have other players in this space like Western digital 4 terabyte nvme drive fell by 10% since last month to $301 on Amazon. Crucial P3 Plus 4TB while for $214.99. Corsair MP600 XT 4 terabytes is $219.99.
Update my recommendation still stands wait till black Friday for the bottoming out.

 

[nnguy2]

Ah classic capitalism, let the free hand guide the market. Companies not making enough money? Just manipulate the supply and artificially increase the "demand".

 

[godrilla]

Ah classic capitalism, let the free hand guide the market. Companies not making enough money? Just manipulate the supply and artificially increase the "demand".

Sub classic, more like cronyism. Also it has a double edge sword affect. Meaning, if they artificially lower supply and increase prices they can potentially alienate themselves into a further ditch then they already have due to dozens of competive products to choose from. ( a supra capitalism affect). Let's not forget the reason that Samsung is in the position it is now is because they dropped the ball hard last year with with life degradation viral hysteria that affected a drop as much as 60% of their NVMe storage's pricing. I personally was affected by the loss of life on my 990 pro 2 terabyte. Samsung took their time patching a fix from what I have seen has been going on for a while even 980 pros. Thank goodness my 990 pro that I bought for $289 is in a stable state of life at 98%(that fell to $135 right after public outcry).
Take home message capitalism can have a sub category affect or supra positive affect via competition ( which where we are now thanks to Crucial, Westerndigital, SanDisk aka Seagate, Corsair, PNY, etc etc ).
Hopefully the pricing stays stable.
Lastly the 990 pro 2 terabyte fell to $120 after a year from launch (about that 60% drop as mentioned above).
Since the price dropped 60% since last year I don't see the point on Samsung mouthing off about this 20% raise in pricing either. Unless they want people to panic buy imo.

 

[Q Wales]

The 980 2TB was around 100$ not long ago. I got myself a second one, not regretting it.

$182 on Amazon UK which looks to be the cheapest here