Gartner Inc. last week slashed its 2006 NAND flash memory growth forecast by a whopping $1.5 billion, and predicted a sluggish market for 2007.

The NAND flash market, which has been in the "oversupply" mode since the beginning of this year, is fast becoming a mere commodity. "I would call it a classical commodity storm for NAND," said Gartner analyst Joseph Unsworth. "There is too much capacity coming online, and we've hit a soft patch in demand."

NAND flash vendors, not surprisingly, were upbeat about the current climate. ''I don't think we're in an oversupply [mode],'' said Bill Lauer, director of marketing at Micron Technology Inc. ' 'If NAND prices fall, then demand will pick up.''

The demand picture remains bright, he said. ''The iPod phenomena has slowed somewhat, but there are still a ton of untapped applications for NAND,'' Lauer said. Besides the MP3 market, hybrid drives, solid-state drives and other products are expected to drive NAND growth, he said.

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