Apparently NAND/flash storage is very popular these day and almost any mobile device has one such chip onboard. During Q4 2016 the price of MLC and SLC NAND flash has increased by 6-10%. These increased prices are linked to the higher SSD demand in PCs and to the slow transition process towards 3D-NAND technology.



Like with DDR4 memory these days, also for NAND flash memory there is a very high demand while the supply is limited. This inevitably leads to increased prices. Analysts are expecting that by 2018 more SSDs will make it into notebooks than HDDs and that in other words means that the demand is still on the rise.

Having a closer look at the expected adoption rates in the notebook market 2017 44% of all units sold should be equipped with an SSD. In 2018 that figure should go up to 56% finally overtaking HDDs. As we already mentioned the increased demand will lead to higher prices, but there is also a second reason, which is the change from 2D to 3D NAND flash memory. 3D NAND allows for higher densities and therefore more storage capacity can be produced for the same price. This will then again lead to a price drop for NAND flash memory, which apparently will have the same effect on SSD prices.




Source: Overclock3d.net.