Apple taking chunk of Samsung's flash chips

Apple's moving to secure enough flash memory chips for the launch of the iPhone 3G.

(Credit: Apple)

Samsung is warning its customers that NAND flash memory might be hard to come by for some time after Apple placed a large order, according to a report out of Taiwan.

Digitimes reported Wednesday that Apple recently placed an order of 50 million 8Gb flash chips that it plans to use for that iPhone thing you might have heard about, and therefore the rest of Samsung's customers will have to wait for their chips. Samsung is one of the companies that Apple contracted with to secure supply of flash memory back in 2005.

The order would translate into 50 million GBs worth of flash (8Gb, or gigabits, equals 1GB, or gigabyte). So, since Apple's planning on having 16GB and 8GB versions of the iPhone 3G, that's enough memory for 3 million 16GB versions, or 6 million 8GB versions, or (most likely) a more even distribution between the two capacities.

Apple apparently ordered 25 million 8Gb chips in June to get the ball rolling, and is now planning for the ramp of the iPhone 3G. The company has steadfastly maintained that it expects to sell 10 million iPhones this year, and it needs to sell about 7.7 million units in the second half of the year to make that goal.

[thelemurking]

After reading a few comments on here and looking through your blog, I am left to wonder, do you write about anything other than the iPhone? As another poster pointed out, there are over 1800+ blog posts related to the iPhone and only 18 for the Samsung Instinct. That is sad on so many levels of fanboy-ism!

[Kwasiowusu]

The Samsung Instinct is a better smart phone than the iPhone. Good news is, Samsung is gonna make sure their own Windows Mobile smartphones get all the NAND flash memory chips they need. No fear of shortages affecting them there.

[drhamad]

Did you really just complain that there isn't enough posts about that embarrassing, embarrassing ripoff known as the Samsung Instinct?

[Tom Krazit]

Are you going to post this on every iPhone blog I do? This is a blog primarily about Apple, not Samsung or Sprint. Any in any event, all of those 1800+ blog posts are not necessarily about the iPhone, all those search results mean is that the word "iPhone" was mentioned at least once in the text. Almost all the posts that were about the Instinct also had the word iPhone in the text.

[Galaxy5]

uh, thelemurking - do you not see the iPod charger cord as part of Krazit's logo for the column? His entire charge is to write about Apple products. This doesn't have anything to do with phones or the comparison thereof.

Let me help you out with something written elsewhere on this page: About One More Thing
At the start of the 21st century, there's no tech outfit more influential than Apple. CNET News.com's Tom Krazit will attempt to make sense of the rumors, hype, products, and people that will shape the future of the company. But Apple's not the only game in town, as the established cell phone companies strike back against the iPhone, and chipmakers try to figure out how to move past PCs and slip into a little something more comfortable.

[Galaxy5]

Re: the Instinct - I don't care about touchscreens. I care about interfaces and usability. That's why the iPhone is such a big deal. Stop whining - if Samsung wants to do something innovative and be lauded by the press as Apple has done, I'm not holding them back.

[Kwasiowusu]

Apple is the most infuluential tech company on the planet? I want some of what you are smoking. How many Apple Macs of iPhones or iPods are in sold in and are i use by Chaina's 1.4 billion populatiom or India's 1.1 population, together accounting for over one third of the worl's population? Well close to ZERO iPods and iPhones are sold in the two biggest population countires on the planet by far, with China having already overtaken Japan as the second biggest economy on the planet in terms of purchasing power partity. And Aple's influence there is close to ZERO. Meanwhile Windows dominates Chinese desktops. When we ralk of the world's servers, that run the world's businesses, Apple's influence and market share,is close to a big fat ZERO as well. Microsoft windiws server sells more units than anyone out there aND 3 times as many units as Linux. Apple is also MIA. In ERP, CRM etc software that run thee the worl'd's businesses, Apple does not even compete let alone have a market share in those markets.Microsoft does In video games consoles, Nintendo's Wii has vast;ly more inluece than Apple has, and Microsoft's XBOX 360 trumps anything Apple has. Yup, Apple is the most infulential tec company alright....on Pluto. This just happpens to be the earth.

[Tom Krazit]

China is running more than 400,000 unlocked iPhones. Apple has the second-largest market share in China for MP3 players. I couldn't find market share stats for India, but iPods are certainly being sold there. You may be right about servers and enterprise software, categories the company barely participates in, but if you don't think the PC, mobile, and music industries aren't closely watching every Apple is doing, you're not paying attention. That doesn't make them perfect; it does make them influential.

[Kwasiowusu]

400,000 iPhones have been sold in China? Litsen, even if that were true(and I ve strong doubts about your onnoficial figures), you seem to forget that to the tune of 150 million cell phones werwe sold in China alone last year. Kinda makers the 400,000 iPhone figure you pluckrd from thin are look like a joke doesn't it?

Nokia alone is selling a massive $9.9 billion in cell phone salesanually in China.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/03/07/nokia-china-postel-markets-equity-cx_vk_0307markets05.html
Meanwhile, where is Apple's market share in servers in China or anywhere else for that matter? close to ZERO!

[Xtoo]

Kwasiowusu, why so bitter? Can't you be happy knowing that MS has all those nice-nice servers in enterprise, ugly and non-functional music players and mobile phones that crash all the time? Be happy and don't hate my brother, be proud to be a PC guy! Look at the bright side, at least you have the ability to downgrade from Vista to XP, we don't, our options are limited to only move forward. I feel so sad...... :)

[GarCorp]

I bow to Kwaslowusu's intelligence. I would assume he's done his research. Although is spelling and grammar approach a big fat ZERO

[aka_tripleB]

Is Samsung holding all orders from everyone else and supplying only to Apple? Or is it filling previous orders then focusing on Apple? Because there is a huge difference between the two, and I believe the former is illegal and anti-competitive. But the other is legal, however, it makes Apple look like a snob when it disreguards that other companies need to place orders, too.

[thelemurking]

That doesn't make sense? It's legal to only supply Apple while others have to wait, but illegal to supply others while Apple has to wait?

[jugadu]

It is not a disregard towards anyone to place an order for goods that one needs... it is simple and plain business sense. You should read "Atlas Shrugged". Your comment is surprisingly similar to one from James Taggart and his friends.

[mfurdyk]

Are you kidding? China is loving the iPhone... did you ever hear of unlocking?

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/iphone_in_china_still_selling_like_hotcakes_and_so_are_hiphones_

The last number our man in Beijing heard for China iPhone sales was 600,000, up from the 400,000 that China Mobile (CHL) reported at the end of 2007. The number of HiPhone sales? Incalculable.

[Kwasiowusu]

400,000 iPhones have been sold in China? Litsen, even if that were true(and I ve strong doubts about your onnoficial figures), you seem to forget that to the tune of 150 million cell phones werwe sold in China alone last year. Kinda makers the 400,000 iPhone figure you plucked from thin are look like a joke doesn't it?

Nokia alone is selling a massive $9.9 billion in cell phone salesanually in China.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/03/07/nokia-china-postel-markets-equity-cx_vk_0307markets05.html
Meanwhile, where is Apple's market share in servers in China or anywhere else for that matter?
And what is apple's market share in video game consoles anywhere on the planet? ZERO. Niintendo's Wii and DS have vastly more infulence in video games than anything Apple has. For the claim to be made that Apple is the the most influenral tecnological company,, when they have ZERO market share in the fastest growing form of entertaiment, the video game console business, as well as close to zero market share in servers, is just plain silly.

[btigger]

I doubt these 8 gb chips would be used in a iphone as is. Apple is probably buying bare-dies and stacking them in a package through Samsung or a 3rd party. No room to solder down 16 or 8 1GB NAND flash chips on an iPhone.

[happajay]

There are so many blogs about the upcoming iPhone 3G because people are excited about it. I know I am. I don't have one yet, but playing around on my friends 2G, I was amazed how easy, sophisticated and usable the interface was. It is not perfect, as nothing really is, but it, IMHO, was clever and artistic; those qualities are important to me. I learned long ago after a short stint on a HP pocket PC, that more bell's and whistles pales in comparison to functionality, ease of use, style and stability. After the pocket PC I went back to palm. Both those formats are going to become extinct and be replaced by smartphones. I think black berry makes a great product, but the iPhone is for me because of what it does FOR ME. It will have apps to download podcasts (listen to the news on the way home), simple email and the BEST internet experience so far on any phone. The instinct is a proprietary platform and will have limited application 3rd party support. So on paper, it seems like a good competitor for the iPhone, but it is not really the future of smartphones like a blackberry. If you don't like apple stuff and don't appreciate what they do for people, then just don't buy one. Stop complaining that other people are excited about their products. I'm in Afghanistan, everyone has some sort of MP3 player, with Ipods/Itunes accounting for about 90% of what I see people using in the gym, etc. People love Itunes and the Iphone just integrates with familiarity that people already are using. There is more to bells and whistles in products (Zune, Instinct, Vista); It's not about what the product does on paper, it's about how it performs in doing what you want it to do.

[anti3g]

The actual price of the new apple iphone 3G = $399!

The published price being advertised all over for the new apple iphone 3G is $199?what they are not telling you is that price is only for new ATT customers and those current ATT customers who happen to be eligible for an equipment upgrade (according to ATT, upgrade eligibility is ?generally? determined by the amount of time remaining on a current contract). For all those current ATT customers who do not happen to be at the end of their contract, the actual price for you is $399 plus an $18 upgrade fee along with a new 2-year contract. ATT is penalizing their long-time, account in good standing, customers a whopping $200. Why is the actual price of the new iphone not being advertised for what it is?$399? It?s the same price as the old iphone with an increase in the data plan.

Post your 3G iPhone experience or opinion at:
www.themissingasterisk.blogspot.com