We are fast approaching the best time of year to upgrade your PC, if looking to maximize your budget and get the most bang for your buck. I’m of course talking about the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales season, which in recent years has morphed from a weekend of deals into several weeks of bargains. This holiday deals season is shaping up to be the most intriguing yet, in part because an oversupply of NAND flash memory could drive prices on certain products down even further than usual.
According to DRAMeXchange, the NAND flash memory market will be seeing a general decline in supplier pricing, which is expected to extend into the fourth quarter.
“Despite the traditional peak season for electronics sales and the release associated with Apple’s new iPhones in 3Q20, the quarterly decrease in NAND flash ASP [average selling price] will likely reach 10 percent, due to the client end’s excess inventory under the impact of the pandemic, ” DRAMeXchange says .
“Furthermore, as suppliers continue making improvements in the yield rate of 128L NAND flash, the oversupply in the NAND flash market will intensify in 4Q20, additional exacerbating the decline in NAND flash ASP, inch DRAMeXchange adds.
The decline could even reach as high as 15 percent, according to the market research firm. Generally speaking, as the cost of components goes down, so does the price of consumer products that use them. That’s to say, it is usually very likely that SSDs and RAM will go down in price over the next few months, in case things play out the particular way DRAMeXchange predicts it will.
In an effort to stop the bleeding, NAND flash memory makers have been reducing the supply in the wafer market over the past few months. However , it has only had a limited effect on pricing, due to module makers having a tough time clearing out inventory because of the impact personnes spending from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Since an excessive level of inventory has been carried over to this quarter, contract prices have inevitably turned downward, ” DRAMeXchange says.
The impact can already be seen, to some extent. Over tou le monde Newegg, there are a bunch of 1TB-class SSDs that are selling well below the $100 mark, such as Adata’s SU630 960GB for $84. 99 (opens in new tab) and Team Group’s 1TB GX2 for $89. 99 (opens in new tab) . Faster NVMe drives cost a little more, but are still relatively affordable—Western Digital’s 1TB Blue SN550 currently goes for $104. 99 (opens in new tab) , as does XPG’s 1TB SX6000 Pro (opens in new tab) .
As always, we’ll be highlighting the best bargains when the deals season arrives, as well as pointing out notable sales between now and then.