Apple SSD Supplier Hit With Contamination Disaster, Flash Storage Prices Expected to Spike
SSD prices are likely to increase globally due to contamination issues at Western Digital and Kioxia's NAND production facilities, and Apple devices may be affected (via TrendForce).
Western Digital says that it has lost 6.5 exabytes worth of BiCS 3D NAND flash storage due to use of contaminated materials at two of its plants in Japan in January. The facilities are jointly run by Western Digital and its partner Kioxia, which was previously part of Toshiba. What caused the contamination and when production is expected to resume has yet to be confirmed.
Western Digital and Kioxia are among the world's leading SSD suppliers, with their joint production amounting to around 30 percent of the entire NAND flash market. TrendForce's market research indicates that the price of NAND, which is the main component of SSDs, could spike by up to 10 percent starting in the second quarter of 2022.
Western Digital and Kioxia primarily offer SSD and eMMC storage drives for PCs, but iFixit teardowns have shown that Apple uses Kioxia NAND chips in many of its products, including the iPhone 13 lineup, the iPad Pro, and the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. Whether any existing Apple products manufactured with Kioxia storage in January will need to be recalled is currently unclear.
Many of Apple's Mac SSDs have been supplied by Samsung in recent years, but the company has increasingly turned to custom storage solutions, culminating in the proprietary SSD components on Apple's M1 Macs being soldered in place.
If Apple devices are not directly impacted by contaminated Kioxia hardware, it is still possible that a tightening of supply across the industry could drive up Apple's costs, but whether the company will absorb these price rises or pass them on to consumers is yet to be seen.
Related Stories
Three months after their launch, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros continue to experience high demand and seemingly short supply, with shipping dates for both models stretching into multiple weeks in several of Apple's key markets.
In the United States, the baseline 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip is estimated to ship in three to four weeks, promising an arrival by at least...
Amazon's all-time low discount on the 14-inch MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 16-core GPU, 1TB SSD) has returned this week, dropping the price of the notebook to $2,249.99 with on-page coupon, down from $2,499.00. This sale is only available in Silver, and you won't see the sale price until you reach the checkout screen due to the automatic on-page coupon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with...
Apple's rumored 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air models will feature new display sizes, but will miss out on mini-LED and ProMotion technology, according to Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) analyst Ross Young.
In a thread on Twitter, Young said that the the 2022 MacBook Air will feature a display size of 13.6-inches. This would make it 0.3-inches larger than the current MacBook Air, but...
Update: The Mac Studio requires an IPSW restore after changing its SSD modules to ensure that they are readable and able to boot. Running a Device Firmware Update (DFU) restore using the macOS IPSW package for the Mac Studio should enable the machine to boot from a different SSD, providing that both of the modules are of the same size and make, meaning that storage upgrades still appear to be...
Apple is working on the successor to the M1 chip, expected to be called the M2, and multiple rumors have already suggested that these chips are going to be used in machines that include a refreshed MacBook Air and a new version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
A new report today from 9to5Mac once again reiterates these rumors, with the site claiming that Apple will introduce a MacBook Air and a...
Apple will next month debut its latest M2 Apple silicon processor in a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro model that will have no major design changes, according to a previously reliable source with close links to Apple's supply chain.
Based on the new information seen by MacRumors, the upcoming 13-inch MacBook Pro retains the same design as the current version, including the Touch Bar, but...
Amazon today has the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro/10-core CPU/1TB SSD for $2,249.00, down from $2,499.00. This sale is only available in Silver, and the notebook is shipped and sold directly by Amazon, with stock available today.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us...
Prices on the new 14-inch MacBook Pro have dropped to even lower prices today on Amazon, starting with the M1 Pro/8‑core CPU/512GB SSD model at $1,749.00, down from $1,999.00. This beats current sales at other retailers by about $50, and is an all-time low price on this version of the MacBook Pro.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and...
Popular Stories
An unnamed 27-year-old man who purchased 300 iPhones from Apple Fifth Avenue on Monday morning was robbed shortly after leaving the store, according to 1010Wins Radio in New York.
He was carrying 300 iPhone 13s in three bags and walking to his car at 1:45 a.m. when another car pulled up next to him. Two men jumped out and demanded that he hand over the bags. Not wanting to hand over 300...
Wednesday November 30, 2022 10:09 am PST by
Juli CloverApple today released iOS 16.1.2, another minor bug fix update that comes one week after the release of iOS 16.1.1 and three weeks after the launch of iOS 16.1, an update that added support for iCloud Shared Photo Library, Matter, Live Activities, and more.
The iOS 16.1.2 update can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
According...
Apple today announced its 2022 App Store Award winners, highlighting the 16 best apps and games selected by Apple's global App Store editorial team.
The top apps were chosen by Apple for their quality, innovative technology, creative design, positive cultural impact, and ability to deliver "exceptional experiences." Apple CEO Tim Cook said:
This year's App Store Award winners reimagined...
Wednesday November 30, 2022 2:39 am PST by
Sami FathiGeekbench scores allegedly for the upcoming "M2 Max" chip have surfaced online, offering a closer look at the performance levels and specific details of the forthcoming Apple silicon processor.
The Geekbench results, first spotted on Twitter, are for a Mac configuration of with the M2 Max chip, a 12-core CPU, and 96GB of memory. The Mac listed has an identifier "Mac14,6," which could be...
Anker's popular Eufy-branded security cameras appear to be sending some data to the cloud, even when cloud storage is disabled and local only storage settings are turned on. The information comes from security consultant Paul Moore, who last week published a video outlining the issue.
According to Moore, he purchased a Eufy Doorbell Dual, which was meant to be a device that stored video...
Wednesday November 30, 2022 12:43 pm PST by
Juli CloverTwitter CEO Elon Musk today met with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, according to a tweet shared by Musk this afternoon.
Musk thanked Cook for taking him around Apple's headquarters, with no mention of what the two might have discussed. The meeting comes just after Musk on Monday claimed that Apple has "mostly stopped" offering ads on Twitter, and that...
Elon Musk has pledged to offer an "alternative phone" if Apple and Google remove Twitter from their app stores, adding to long-standing rumors about an iPhone rival from Tesla.
Modified iPhone 11 Pro in the style of the Tesla Cybertruck, by Caviar. Musk's remark came after being asked about the potential scenario of Twitter being removed from app stores, which could conceivably happen if the...
The Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shopping rush is drawing to a close, but there are still some good deals to be had out there. For Apple products, many of the deals you've seen since last week are still available, though some have expired. So for anyone who missed out on Black Friday deals, there's still an opportunity to get some of the year's best prices on many Apple devices.
Note: ...
Apple today rolled out an updated Apple Music Replay experience for 2022, showcasing a new "highlight reel" feature.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The overhauled experience, which started to be noticed by Apple Music subcribers on Twitter earlier today, puts the new highlight reel feature at the forefront of the Replay webpage, which users are encouraged to...
Apple's upcoming iPhone 15 models will be equipped with Sony's newest "state of the art" image sensors, according to a report from Nikkei.
Compared to standard sensors, Sony's image sensor doubles the saturation signal in each pixel, allowing it to capture more light to cut down on underexposure and overexposure. Nikkei says that it is able to better photograph a person's face even with...
The 
Top Rated Comments
...anyway.
This is excellent news!