James Delahunty
30 Nov 2007 16:39
According to an analyst from Friedman Billings Ramsey & Company, the recently confirmed upgrade to Apple Inc.'s iPhone, scheduled for early 2008, has already suffered its first delay. Mehdi Hosseini cites data from recent checks that show the next gen iPhone was most likely scheduled for a release in March or April 2008, but that now the upgraded version of the one of the year's hottest gadgets may only see daylight around late summer.
This is bad news for manufacturers of NAND flash. Contrary to Samsung's predictions, Hossein expects the iPhone delay to impact demand for NAND flash memory in the first half of 2008. Contrast this with with the summer of 2007, when Apple's NAND flash memory demand was so high it caused shortages for other major electronics companies.
Alan Niebel of Web-Feet Research noted that there is in fact an oversupply of NAND flash memory at this moment. Prices may also be kept down by new low-cost Apple gadgets that use NAND memory, including possibly an ultra-mobile MacBook or a form of "iPhone Nano".
Source:
Electronista