Apple Takes Top Honors in Competitive NAND Eating Contest

Apple (AAPL) first shook up the NAND market back in 2005 when it arranged to purchase up to 40 percent of Samsung Electronics’ holiday NAND output for use in it iPods.

And now it’s creating a bit of a stir again, this time thanks to the iPhone. Apple plans to buy 50 million 8Gb-equivalent NAND flash chips from Samsung. That’s an awful lot of NAND–so much, in fact, that the chip manufacturer has been forced to reduce its supply to other customers to fulfill its obligation to Apple.

Either way, this is ugly news for any Samsung customer not headquartered in Cupertino, Calif. That said, the deal’s impact on the NAND market could be a reduction in prices for all. Something to look forward to, after the drought, I suppose.