Apple to buy Samsung's flash chips-analyst

Apple Computer Inc. plans to buy as much as 40 percent of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s flash memory output in the second half for its new flash-based iPod Mini MP3 player, iSuppli and Deutsche Bank analysts said on Wednesday.

Apple known for its wildly popular iPod digital music player, is expected to introduce a 4-gigabyte version of the iPod Mini that uses NAND flash memory instead of a hard disk drive for the Christmas season.

"To support production of its flash memory-based iPods, Apple has booked as much as 40 percent of the NAND output of Samsung for the second half of 2005, according to our industry sources," said iSuppli Corp. analyst Nam Hyung Kim.

"We're not sure now many of the new iPods Apple can sell this holiday season, but 40 percent would be the maximum in terms of their demand," he added, reports Reuters.

"To support production of its flash memory-based iPods, Apple has booked as much as 40 per cent of the NAND output of Samsung for the second half of 2005, according to our industry sources," Nam Hyung Kim, an analyst at iSuppli Corp. said.

"We're not sure now many of the new iPods Apple can sell this holiday season, but 40 per cent would be the maximum in terms of their demand," he added.

South Korea's Samsung is the world's largest producer of NAND flash memory, used in hot-selling MP3 music players, digital cameras and high-end mobile phones, commanding a 55 per cent share of the market.

Apple shipped 6.2 million iPods - about 1 million more than Wall Street's expectations - in the fiscal third quarter ended June 25, as its net profit jumped five-fold, informs Hindustan Times.