M-Systems Comments on 'The iPod Nano Effect' for Flash Memory (FLSH 3Q05 Conf Call Quotes)

In a conference call following its 3Q05 earnings report, M-Systems VP for Business Development Noam Kedem commented on what he termed 'The iPod Nano Effect' -- accelerated growth for NAND flash memory in the consumer electronics market, due to its high profile use in the Apple product:

The full-featured iPod Nano -- 4 Gigabytes of embedded NAND in a consumer electronics device… What does it spell for other consumer electronics devices?... the Nano effect accelerated certain market adoption processes and brought NAND into the limelight…

Nano gave a very strong boost to the embedded flash drive architecture. Handset vendors are thinking if they can squeeze 4 gigabytes of flash into an MP3 player and make a fortune doing so, why shouldn’t we be able to do the same even if it lowers densities at first?... NAND versus hard drive: The Nano appears to have greatly intensified and accelerated NAND undercurrents flowing underneath the corners of traditional magnetic media territories… by end of next year, we should be able to see products beginning to hit acceptable early adopter price points for the 10-gigabyte range…we will see more and more flash everywhere, faster than people have anticipated thus far. More flash-based camcorders eventually making tape media obsolete, more flash in… laptops and thin corporate desktops… ultimately displacing hard drives, more flash in handsets through embedded flash drives… more mobile software applications and, thus, more flash in U3 smart drives… more flash in GPS and car navigation systems, gaming devices.

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

Related:

M-Systems Ramps Revenues, Earnings in 3Q05 (FLSH)

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The complete list of companies (and links to articles about them) covered by The Consumer Electronics Stock Blog.

Full disclosure: Editor is long FLSH at time of publication.

Comments

[User 117948:]

4 gigabytes of flash into an MP3 player Kool man Am looking forward to but one

2007 Oct 29 05:35 AM