Last Tuesday, when it released its financial results for the third fiscal quarter of 2009, Apple announced a major deal with Toshiba, in which $ 500 million has already been paid in advance for a long-term partnership involving the provision of NAND memories flash for portable devices from the Cupertino firm. Nowadays, such components are used in all iPhones and iPods, except the classic that may have its days numbered.
According to today's article from the DigiTimes, in August Toshiba will “speed up” the production of flash chips, probably to meet a large (and new) demand from Apple. Assuming a new line of iPods arrive in September, the rumor makes a lot of sense. Incidentally, considering the arrival of the all-talked about iTablet, it gets even more interesting.
The Chinese newspaper claims that Toshiba will reach 90% of the total capacity of its factories with the move. Still, Apple is expected to enter into similar new deals with other vendors, since in 2005 it paid $ 1.25 billion to Hynix, Intel, Micron, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba with partnerships that will expire next year.
Apple is estimated to use 3% of all flash memory storage in the world. "We see flash as a key component (for Apple) because, as you know, we use it in many of our products," said Tim Cook, chief operating officer (COO) at Ma.
