TrendForce writes that while a backstop of orders remains, demand for SSDs has fallen compared to last year’s levels when working from home was the norm, and more people were buying computer hardware. Other, familiar factors are behind the cooling demand for SSDs: the global economic downturn and rising inflation are affecting how much people are willing to spend. That’s led to companies, especially Chinese smartphone manufacturers, reducing stock. As such, there’s an oversupply in the NAND flash market. It’s a different story when it comes to enterprise SSDs. TrendForce expects global enterprise SSD purchase capacity to grow 10% quarter-over-quarter, partly thanks to orders from hyperscale data centers, meaning the price of these SSDs is predicted to remain flat.
It’s noted that demand for Chromebooks has continued to decline since Q2 2022, which means prices for the eMMC storage used in the machines (and the cheapest version of the Steam Deck) are predicted to drop by 3-8% in Q3—just don’t expect these devices to become any cheaper for consumers. Lower sales and oversupply mean the prices for both TLC and QLC NAND wafers continue to fall. They were down 8-13% in Q2 and are believed to drop 5-10% in the third quarter. After what seems like an eternity of high prices and difficult-to-find components, PC builders can finally start enjoying their hobby again, especially with RTX 3000 cards below MSRP for the first month since the launch of Ampere. Masthead credit: KenSoftTH
