iPad’s launch news will help stabilize the NAND Flash price trend

1HMar. mainstream MLC NAND Flash contract price roughly declined 1-7% due to the 1Q quarter-end accounting settlement effect, slow season issue and increasing white-box TLC memory card supply etc. The market demonstrated the slower procurement activities after Chinese Lunar New Year, and NAND Flash price showed the floppy trend as well. 1H Mar NAND Flash contract price remained partially decline and flat pattern. Impacted by the slow season effect in March, NAND Flash suppliers receive more stable orders from electronics system and OEM customers rather than the memory card and UFD makers. Therefore, high-density MLC contract price showed the comparably mild pricing decline trend compared with low-density MLC contract price.

Since iPad is announced to be officially launched in US market on April 3rd and other countries in late April, NAND Flash related companies will closely observe & look forward for the boosted demand based on the really iPad sales in 2Q10. We believe other competitors will plan to launch more different series of tablet PCs and mobile devices in the near future if sales of iPad are satisfactory. We believe this movement will help bring more demand for NAND Flash market in 2010. We thus expect the new product launch effect will inspire recent conservative market sentiment to help stabilize NAND Flash price trend.