If you've been thinking about upgrading to an SSD at some point, you may want to do it sooner rather than later as analysts this week are claiming that prices are about to spike due to increased demand and lower supply. It looks like the pricing of NAND Flash has begun rising during the third quarter of 2016, but manufacturing will be under greater strain, which will see prices rise.
This strain on supply is partly down to the industry transitioning from older 2D NAND to 3D NAND, which is reducing supply at a rather poor time, since demand for NAND Flash is on the rise for smartphones and PCs.
Image Credit: Micron
The initial analysis came from DRAMeXchange (via: CTimes) which notes that NAND revenue rose by 19.6 percent during the third quarter. Eventually, manufacturing facilities will be upgraded to keep up with increased demand for 3D NAND and tight supplies won't be so much of an issue but if these analysts are correct, then we may see SSD prices go up for a while.
KitGuru Says: As the industry moves further away from 2D NAND, greater demand is being placed on 3D NAND manufacturing, so this analysis makes sense. Obviously though, this situation will work itself out over the next few months as things start to settle down.