In recent days, Amazon has seen 2TB SSD from at least two different manufacturers drops to under $100, a remarkable low even outside of Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
While Teamgroup’s SATA-based AX2 and Leven are the first to drop below $50 per terabyte, several more are expected to do so in the next weeks/months.
The analysis firm TrendForce claims that the overstock of NAND flash—the fundamental component of all so-called solid-state storage (such as SSDs, eMMCs, microSD cards, flash drives, etc.)—is the result of an increase in supply and a decrease in demand (both from consumers and enterprises). As a result, some businesses may drop their pricing by as much as 20% by the end of the year.
When will flash memory match hard drive costs?
Since NAND prices will remain low through 2023, more providers are offering QLC solutions, says TrendForce analyst Bryan Ao. On Black Friday 2023, 2TB QLC SSDs may cost less than $80. 30% of the time, it will happen.
It appears that 2 terabytes (TB) is the sweet spot where HDDs and SSDs are similarly priced. There aren’t many 4TB SSD SKUs available, and the prices of 1TB SSDs haven’t fallen as quickly as those of their 2TB counterparts. However, the largest vendors have been able to better control inventories thanks to vertical integration, thus prices have remained relatively stable despite the precipitous decline in demand for both SSDs and HDDs.
In spite of bleak macroeconomic reasons, the price of solid-state drives has been falling at an accelerated rate due to other considerations. The transition to the 176-layer technology allows for the production of larger capacity SSDs at the same price, rendering the production of smaller capacity drives (128GB, 256GB) unprofitable. Amazon has 2TB SSD from at least two brands for $100.
In what ways can we proceed?
What does that mean, then? Presently (as of this writing), a 1TB solid-state drive (SSD) installed internally costs almost twice as much as a conventional hard disc drive of the same capacity and physical dimensions (2.5-inch). A 2TB solid-state drive (SSD) costs just over twice as much as a 2TB hard disc drive (HDD).
TrendForce estimates that after a 30% decrease, the cost of a 1TB SSD will be only slightly higher than that of a 1TB HDD. When that happens, there won’t be much of a need for such a large hard drive, therefore you shouldn’t acquire one. In comparison to traditional hard drives, solid-state drives (SSDs) are typically faster, significantly more robust, lighter, have a longer warranty, and waste less energy.
There is no immediate threat to larger hard drive sizes, at least in terms of economics, above 4TB for hyperscale applications.