Why have SSD prices not droped?

6 months ago I bought a WD 64gb SSD for ~$100 AC because it was an amazing deal at the time....

I was hoping that SSD prices would have dropped some by now, yes there are new "faster" ones out, but they are the same _____ price....


so, why have SSDs not dropped in price like every other PC component out there?

 

I think its about the supply and demand,,when new technology comes out it has a premium price tag as supply and demand is low,,,as time goes on manufacturing economies start to catch up and thus supply is increased and the price gets lower,,couple this new models of the same technology,,the older technology demand drops as adoption of newer technology has started, thus the price drops on older technology----the leftovers,,,the price on newer tech SSD's will come down, however, the I think its still too early, for the companies to engage in price wars....

Looking deeper at this,,,its quite obvious that the economic model at work here, states clearly,,that when the "spot market" on parts to ssd's is oversupplied, buyers will up there quantity desired and lower there bid per unit(the SSD makers),,this is exactly what happened in the ddr ram chip market and why the prices came down so significantly there,the savings are passed on to the consumer ,I got into a conversation with a Seller of ram chips, a manager and he told me,,I knew more about it than he did,,,actually its just State University level economics and keeping your eyes open and your pencil sharp,,,,lol,, mv=pq ,,,anyone...

Cheers
3Fees

 

because people buy them.

 

They have dropped in price for sure; depending on the SSD it could be by a lot, or by not such a significant amount. Right now there are still all the same SSD's out there, so there isn't going to be any reason for them to drop in price (once the new 2011 SSD's actually start making their way to the public, then the older SSD's will go on clearance as they will be old stock that needs to be gotten rid of). But until then there isn't going to be too many superb deals


The new SSD's will bring a cheaper cost per GB, for the first few months they will still be more expensive than last generation's SSD's; no getting around that fact (after all they are all businesses trying to make money)


Also, I hate to break it to you, but a faster drive for the same money IS getting more for your money (maybe you aren't saving more money, but you ARE getting a better product)

 

Honestly, I think the memory companies milk everyone for everything they can, like the oil companies. Prices should have fallen far below where they are now, but instead enjoy a very slow, steady decline. Take it for what you will.

 

Memory companies are very different from oil companies. Other than airlines, I can't find an industry that is worse to put money in.

 

I bought my Nova 128GB last spring for about $300. I saw it this weekend (with rebate) for $168.

 

They are falling. Slowly. The newer faster ones are the same price as the older slower ones.

 

That is called smart business.

Successful companies aren't in the habit of giving stuff away to be nice. Any company that doesn't maximize the amount of revenue that they generate will not be in business very long.

 

Other PC components, like CPU's and GPU's, drop in price because of competition.

There is not very much competition in the SSD space, because there isn't a lot of demand in the SSD space. As much as the enthusiasts on forums like these talk about SSD's all day, the reality is that we are an absolutely tiny spec compared to the overall number of storage devices sold, because almost every computer sold ships with a mechanical hard drive. For example, Western Digital makes more in one quarter (~$2.45B) than the entire SSD market made in all of 2010 (~$1B).

What will drive down costs is higher demand. And what will create higher demand is when PC manufacturers start putting an SSD in the computers they ship out the door - much like what Apple is doing with the MacBook Air.

 

the memory chips used in SSD are controlled by a few suppliers, and in the past there have been incidents where large manufacturers set an agreed price on their chips, rather than allowing market mechanism to determine how much they should really cost.

While, currently price setting between manufacturers are illegal and would attract punitive measures from many governments, these manufacturers can instead reduce their manufacturing capacity to decrease supply and therefore increase the price that way. This is one of the main reason that i think why the SSD price has not dropped more.

 

I think that is a little too tin-foil-hat. What you're suggesting is collusion. And that is (as you correctly stated) a felony.

If a manufacturer intentionally decreased their output to try and manipulate prices, a competitor would end up stealing that business. Healthy competition defeats price / supply manipulation. Price / supply manipulation only works when there is no competition, which is why collusion is illegal.

I think it's pretty unlikely that price/supply manipulation from memory manufacturers is the reason why SSD prices haven't dropped. I think that the far more likely reason is that there just isn't enough demand to trigger a huge rush of supply... and without a huge rush of supply, you don't get price wars.

 

@Kent, i think you should get yourself up to speed on these sort of stuffs. While it is illegal, it has been done for quite a long time in the past.

In Memory Of The Law: The Memory Industry's Legal Problems - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Anyway, it is illegal only when you are caught and there is enough supporting evidence to bring them to trial. If they are money to be made, then you can be sure that some unscrupulous people or company would do it.

Another case of price fixing by the big oligopoly in the electronic industry:

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/337769/sony_lg_samsung_hitachi_toshiba_accused_price_fixing/

 

welcome to the real world. there's one thing better than "healthy competition". no competition but teamwork. if no one goes down, everyone wins. works for tons of industries, independent if it's illegal or not.

 

Though I think the spot price of raw NAND($/GB) vs SSD($/GB) shows quite a gap there(the last time I read, forgot where).

I can buy a 4GB SD for as low as 5 USD, street price. So it is only around 1.25/GB and higher density one(up to a point) would only mean even lower $/GB.

So I don't think the NAND maker is the problem here.

 

There is quite a lot of difference in speed when you compare the ssd and sd cards, so it is not exactly the same. Also if you are make comparison like that then you can compare the spot price for wheat and how much an equivalent weigh loaf of bread costs in the shop. So it is not the same.

 

Prices have dropped for the 64GB and below SSD's. You can frequently find a quality 64GB or smaller for <$100 (< $1.50/GB) which is a more than adequate size for an OS drive and a handful of power apps.

Granted for laptops a larger one is preferable for obvious reasons (single drive bay primarily), but even so, 120-128GB SSD's are running < $200 (~$1.50/GB). Not it's not $1/GB that we're all hoping for, but it's getting there. The 80GB Intel G2 that I bought about a year ago cost a little over $200, and got my 120GB G2 for less than that just recently ($189). So prices have dropped.

 

different in speed is not due to the NAND but the multiple channel/block thing on SSD.

We are on the subject of memory producer is the reason(price fixing). I was saying the sign doesn't show that tho be the case because their end product is the NAND chip which is what the spot price is.

The anlogy is like saying farmer is the reason why the cost of bread is high because they charge high on wheat or deliberately plant less which again is not the case.

 

As htwingnut has said, SSD prices have dropped, but not the dramatic 50-60% we would all so hope for. Once they become more mainstream, they will drop to the 1$/GB price ratio and even below that.

 

Unfortunately farming doesn't involve alot of technology (or have to invest couple of billion dollars in fabs) nor are they controlled by a group of manufacturers in the world. There is little point arguing about since it is just a theory and only time will prove these stuffs.

 

Of course there is little point because the theory cannot withstand examination. IOW, the data is saying the opposite.

 

no they won't, if people are willing to pay... there's a lot of mainstream products that are not cheap.

there's the other approach: the high end ones stay at their prices, and we see more low end products coming in cheap. stuff that is slower than current intel gen2, but still "rugged and snappy".

the ssds that "rock the world" will never be cheap in the next years.

 

So what data have you presented so far to prove your side of argument? I haven't seen any so far.

 

there are different quality flash chips. best seen are cheap usb sticks. those that die within the first few uses.

for ssds, normally the highest quality gets chosen, for usb sticks the lowest one. and even the lowest one cost quite a bit.

then the controller, there's a lot of development behind the controller (and the firmware) => that one isn't cheap as well.

and then it's raw size. if 4gb is 5$, then 256gb is still 320$. then the controller, say 20$ for taht. and we're (with packaging and all) at around 350$. and that would be with the flash that dies within the first days (i bought a usb3 stick two months ago. it died a month ago.. it wasn't the cheapest one. so far only one usb stick survived for years here).


and that, my friends, was my post nr. 6666

 

I thought the quality of the flash NAND doesn't make a huge difference as only a few manufacturers actually make the chips. Companies like ADATA get the lowest binned memory...while Corsair gets highest binned memory.

 

and this binning means a difference in the amount of writes. as a usb stick or an sd card doesn't need much writes, they can use the lower binnings there. an ssd can't.

 

Hrm, well one should think the controller is more important than the quality of the flash NAND. SF has Dura-Write so the usage of lower quality NAND doesn't matter?

 

You are correct. The controller is more important than the quality of the NAND flash memory. That is why all SandForce SF-1200 drives (OCZ Vertex 2, G.Skill Phoenix, Corsair F120, etc) perform exactly the same, and why all Indilinx drives perform the same.

Today, people say "Buy an SSD based off of the Intel / SandForce controller". If memory really did make that much of a difference, people would be saying "Buy an SSD based off of Micron's Bin-516A NAND flash memory."

 

whatever, kent knows better.. (still, the cheap flash gets into usb sticks, the good one into ssds. the controller doesn't matter, that's the way it goes. premium to premium, cheap to cheap)

 

Well when they come in the majority of laptops the price will go down. Basically the consumer are buying them and not the companies that make the laptops. How many laptops do you see at Best Buy with SSD drives? Toshiba has a couple that come preconfigured in a model. You can get them from the HP site where you can configure your own.

 

Here's your proof that new SSDs don't drive down prices of the current models.

Newegg.com - Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Newegg.com - Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH250A2K5 2.5" 250GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Instead they just charge more for the newest models, while keeping prices of the old ones the same.

 

That's what I figured. Over time these will drop, but then the new ones will cost as much as these, lather, rinse, repeat.

 

I'd say lounge around on eBay or the marketplace here,

to get a good used SSD with good health.

It saves some costs, and yet it works perfectly okay.

 

Or just wait for newegg's super deals. I got my first 120GB G2 X25-M for cheap. It was something like $199 + $30 MIR + $25 newegg gift card. Second one was just a flat 20% off, so got it for $184. And used the newegg gift card for that. Would have used the $30 MIR but was an Amex cash card and newegg won't accept two forms of payment. That's one thing I hate about newegg. So many MIR's now offer cash cards. I had about $200 worth, most of which came from newegg, but couldn't use them at newegg because they don't take multiple forms of payment. Stupid.

edit: and speaking of which:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...ntel-x25-m-120gb-176-newegg-shellshocker.html

$176 after $30 MIR newegg shellshocker.