October 2009 Flash Price Increase

So prices are going up again. Here’s an explanation.

NAND Flash, the memory component used inside USB drives is a commodity product, like gold or oil. Its price is controlled by supply, demand and various market conditions. In the beginning of the year, costs were at an all time low so to equalize the market, Samsung and Toshiba reduced output of flash which is now causing a shortage. In the last three months, costs doubled which caused the price to the end user to go up as well. Think of it as a commodity stock market; if you do not buy today, tomorrow you may have a different price.

The lesson – stop procrastinating, place your order today.