American Green Inc (ERBB)

[kenco]

maaaarcus, maybe you are out of the loop...

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2005/tc20050929_4235_tc056.htm


"But the iPod Nano has turned out to be Apple's knockout punch. Having secured a large chunk of the supply of flash memory from Samsung and Toshiba and a price break from Samsung, Apple is going to constrain the supply for flash chips. That's going to make it difficult for competitors making flash-memory-based players that work with other music services to get their products on the shelves this holiday season.

CHIP HOARD. How bad will it be for Apple's rivals in the music-player business? A research report by WR Hambrecht says manufacturers of flash memory will be experiencing an uncomfortably tight supply environment this quarter and into the first quarter of 2006. Samsung and Toshiba both have their second- and third-tier customers on allocation -- which means lots of smaller companies will be told to get in line and wait for their flash chips.

And it may only get worse for those companies. Analysts at UBS Investment Research suggest that Apple could get an even bigger price break on flash chips from Samsung, and Toshiba may give it favorable pricing as well, making it even tougher for others to compete on price and amid constrained supplies. Rumors are also buzzing that Apple may soon tie up even more flash supplies by cutting a deal with Hynix Semiconductor."