More on the 4GB Flash iPod

Reuters via Yahoo! News claims Apple is planning "to buy as much as 40 percent of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s flash memory output in the second half" for use in the rumored 4GB iPod Mini that will use flash memory in place of a hard drive.

iSuppli analyst Nam Hyung Kim predicted, "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. 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."

Neither Apple nor Samsung would comment, but Apple already uses Samsung's chips in the Shuffle.

Deutsche Bank analyst D.J. Yook added, "If Apple can sell 4 million units of its flash-based iPod in the fourth quarter, that demand alone will account for 36 percent of Samsung's fourth-quarter NAND capacity of 11 million units."

According to the article, the "analysts said the December quarter traditionally accounted for about 50-55 percent of Apple's annual iPod shipments. This suggested Apple could ship at least 15 million iPods in the coming Christmas quarter if past trends continued, creating an acute shortage in the global NAND flash market."