The price of flash memory chips continues to increase since April 2009, as much as 25%. A recent article published by Digitimes on 14 September 2009: Apple demand causing serious NAND flash shortage in Taiwan explains some of the reasons why.
Few consumers have any idea about the cost of the flash memory chips used in their mp players, usb flash drives and memory cards. Many fall prey to fraudulent sellers, who sell them items with false capacity – flash memory chips that have been digitally altered to report a size much larger than they really are. You usually find these items for sale on eBay. Usb flash drives advertised as 16GB are sold for as little as $15 US. 32GB memory cards are frequently won for $25 and under. MP Players advertised to be 8GB or 16GB often sell in the $15 and $30 US range.
What are the new costs of flash memory chips?
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