Stamford, Conn. — NAND spot prices continue to decline with prices pulled lower by the 16-Gb and 32-Gb MLC parts, which fell by about 3 percent, on average, according to the latest pricing report from Gartner Inc.
On a weighted 1GB average, prices fell below $2 for the first time since early April, as customers wrestled with the outlook for limited demand in the third-quarter demand, said a Gartner analyst.
Gartner said attention continues to be on solid-state drive (SSD) adoption, with the greatest optimism centered on the enterprise-grade SSD market. While SSDs will have no material impact on the NAND market this year and only a minor impact in the second half of 2010, the enterprise-grade SSD segment has received a lot of attention, according to Gartner.
The leader in enterprise-grade SSD, STEC, recently announced that sales of its ZeusIOPS SSDs are now forecast to exceed $220 million in 2009 thanks to a $120-million supply agreement for the second half of 2009 from a key enterprise storage customer. Gartner forecasts this market to reach 281,000 units and $434 million in sales this year, up from 59,000 units and $93 million in 2008.