Samsung gained much of its lead on the back of its 3D NAND, but that advantage is expiring. Micron recently expanded its Singapore fab, which focuses on 32-layer 3D NAND, by an additional 225,000 square feet. Intel, which participates in the joint IMFT (Intel/Micron Flash Technologies) partnership, also stands to gain from the increased output, but it is also plowing ahead with its own 3D NAND aspirations. Sk Hynix is reportedly ramping up to 48-layer products, which will increase output, and we've already seen its 36-layer 3D NAND in the wild. The Toshiba/WD Flash Forward partnership still lags behind the other fabs, but the company expects significant 3D BiCS volume by mid-2017.
We should expect some serious jockeying in the SSD market over the coming year, but Samsung is turning to other methods to gain a new advantage. 3D NAND is much cheaper to produce than regular planar NAND, but many opine that Samsung isn't passing all of the savings to the consumer, because there hasn't been any serious competition. As more fabs start pumping out 3D NAND, we can expect pricing to plunge even further, which is good for everyone. It may also accelerate other trends, such as the (so far) excruciatingly slow death of the HDD in the consumer market.
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