How Much Have You Spent On Accessories For Your Pandora?

[Arkay Firestar]

It is a FACT that 32GB will drop in price, possibly becoming the same cost as 16GB is now, in the next 6-12 months.

Even though the last 12 months has seen a fairly steady increase in the cost of flash media?

Most folks seem confident of it, yes. There may be continued supply issues, but the general thought is that SSD will have it's biggest growth in 2010-2011, increasing demand and in turn supply for NAND memory. Also, improved MLC flash manufacturing processes (Multi-level cell, basically a less stable consumer-grade flash) is supposed to reduce costs as well. Of course, they could fix the prices like they were punished for doing with DRAM, and it's a volatile market, so anything COULD happen, but still, most do not expect the increases will continue.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/19/samsung-first-with-20-nm-nand-flash-cheaper-faster-sd-cards-on/

http://www.zdnetasia.com/memory-price-hikes-fail-to-dampen-ssd-growth-62056396.htm

"The analyst added that from a longer-term perspective, the average selling price of NAND flash is expected to decline at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 percent through to 2013. During the same forecast period, IDC also expects SSD shipments to achieve a CAGR of 55 percent, and SSD revenues to register a CAGR of 49 percent.

Similarly, iSuppli's estimates show that prices of 16GB-density MLC NAND flash will drop steadily from Q2, 2009's US$4.10 to US$2.20, by the fourth quarter of 2010."