Perhaps 2012 will be the year that solid state drives (SSDs) finally dip to $1 per gigabyte, or even lower depending on how the market plays out. High prices compared to mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs) have prevented SSDs from making a serious run at the mainstream market, but Ultrabooks as gain popularity, the demand for NAND flash memory is growing fast, and that could lead to lower costs.

DigiTimes says it spoke with sources at memory product makers who feel that global demand for NAND flash is set to soar in the next 12 months. In addition to Ultrabooks, which mostly rely on SSDs, there's also increased demand for NAND flash memory for eMMCs (used in smartphones) and Wi-Fi wireless mobile storage devices, such as the Wi-Drive launched by Kingston Technology and the StoreJet Cloud launched by Transcend.

On top of rising demand from the mobile market, the 19nm manufacturing process for NAND flash memory is expected to mature throughout 2012, another factor that will lead to lower costs.

By: DocMemory
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