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February 9, 2007

speculation

Jesse Tortora is all flash, even if Apple’s iPods aren’t

Posted Feb. 9, ’07, 8:42 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » Speculation

Flash memmoryHey, kids. It’s time again for “Uninformed Speculation with Analysts,” this week featuring Prudential prognosticator Jesse Tortora. You may remember Tortora from such predictions as “the iPhone has a keyboard!!”, “the iPhone has a Click Wheel!”, and “the iPhone has a Taser!” Okay. That one I made up.

So what’s our good buddy Jesse selling this time?

“We believe that the video iPod transition from 1.8-inch hard disk drives to NAND flash memory may occur as soon as late 2007,” Tortora wrote. “Our checks indicate that Apple is considering canceling its next generation HDD-based iPod design, with the form factor refresh involving a move to NAND flash memory.”
While moving to an all flash line would improve battery life and allow Apple to shrink the iPods further, I’m going to go with a negatory on this shot. While flash prices have dropped, and Apple does probably have good deals in place for volume purchasing, the capacity/cost point hasn’t hit a sweet spot yet. Given that the most flash memory in any Apple product is right now 8GB, and the lowest hard drive iPod is a 30GB model, there’s a lot of space to make up there.

I don’t dispute that they’ll probably make the switch at some point, but I say “nay” to this year. Better luck next time, Jesse.

[via Last Mac]


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