Nowadays, finding a desktop or laptop PC with a mechanical hard drive (HDD) is really rare. SSD drives, due to their good performance and the prices they have reached, have become the most used component. It is now expected that the SSD price falls again up to 10%so we can wait a bit to buy.
We come from several years where the price of hardware has been inflated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to confinement, the demand for new systems for teleworking or teletraining increased significantly. In addition, problems were added in transportation or the closure of production plants due to lack of personnel, among others.
The price of SSDs will fall in the coming months
The chip production capacity of memory from Kioxia and Western Digital is currently capable of satisfy the demand. But now a drop in demand for SSDs is expected. Among the problems would be the reduction in smartphone sales and the increase in inflation. All this makes it possible to reach a drop in SSD prices in the third quarter of 2022, of up to 5%.
There are data showing that the consumer laptop and Chromebook sales are below 2021 data. They would be currently working on inventory reduction, since sales will be below last year’s data.
But, as SSD production returns to normal, the supply for users is increasing. The aim is to avoid an excess of stock in the warehouses, something that would generate a drop in the prices of these units. The data indicates a price drop of between 3-8% for the third quarter of 2022.
Regarding the business market data, it seems that the demand for Data Centers remains stable. So in this segment there should be no major changes. Furthermore, capacity for this segment globally is expected to increase 10% by the third quarter of 2022.
Regarding eMMC memories for Chromebooks and UFS for smartphones, a drop between 3-8% is expected for the third quarter of 2022. Both markets are being held back by a sharp reduction in demand. Above all, there is a big slowdown in the demand for new smartphones.
When will we see this data reflected?
The truth is that for a few weeks we have already been seeing the prices of SSDs fall. Above all, we will not take it in units of 1 TB and higher capacities, which are usually the most expensive. The impact on lower capacity hard drives, and especially 2.5-inch hard drives, will be much less noticeable.
We may start to spot price changes as the weeks go by. The drop in prices is not usually immediate, it is usually quite progressive. In addition, in many cases it is not “effective”, but rather becomes an offer to boost sales and thus reduce stock faster. Most likely, they will be enhanced by going back to school, where there are usually quite a few hardware deals.
