4GB flash for iPod in the making ?

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Tom's Hardware Guide: "Rumors that Apple may soon replace the harddrive in the iPod mini with Flash memory gained substantial weight on Friday with an analyst saying that Samsung may drastically slash prices for its Flash memory products - potentially by up to 50 percent.

According to Nam Kim, director and principal analyst for iSuppli's Memory ICs/Storage Systems research department, Samsung may be wooing Apple to convert parts of the iPod product line from using harddrives to Flash memory products. Apple already has booked as much as 40 percent of Samsung's NAND Flash output to support the production of 512 MByte and 1 GByte iPod Shuffle devices. To extend this relationship, Kim said that he believes that 'Samsung has committed to Apple that its NAND products will match harddrive pricing.'

In order to replace the 4 GByte harddrive in the iPod mini, Samsung will have to reduce pricing of its 4 GByte Flash by about 50 percent. And Kim believes that Samsung is the only Flash manufacturer that is capable of taking such a step. 'Samsung is the world's largest and dominating NAND Flash manufacturer with a market share of about 55 percent. Q2 profit margins of the company were about 45 percent. That is much more than other Flash suppliers can achieve.'

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