TOKYO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Japanese electronics company Fujitsu Ltd. (6702.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) began selling laptops with NAND-type flash memory storage (Solid State Disks) to businesses on Friday, but it said it expects few orders until NAND prices fall further.

“Maybe 20 percent of companies interested in these laptops will opt for NAND storage,” Fujitsu Corporate Vice President Masami Yamamoto said. “NAND prices would have to fall much further if we are to reach individual consumers.”

Fujitsu estimates roughly 20,000 orders for its new NAND-convertible Lifebook laptops through March, so 20 percent of these would amount to 4,000 PCs.

Replacing the standard hard disk drive (HDD) on Fujitsu’s new laptops with a flash memory disk would make the laptops lighter and more shock-resistant, extend battery life by 30 minutes and cut in half the time required to start up Windows.

But replacing a 20-gigabyte HDD with a 16-gigabyte flash memory disk would cost an extra 80,000 yen ($670). The price would go up 160,000 yen to switch to a 32-gigabyte flash disk.

“The price is high, but we judged there is adequate demand from companies for NAND PCs, which greatly reduce the risk of losing data,” Yamamoto said. “It may be a slow start, but we want to be ready when laptops will be as handy as mobile phones.”

Fujitsu’s move follows Sony Corp.’s release this summer of a hand-held computer equipped with NAND. The products are expected to boost sales of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Toshiba Corp., the world’s top two makers of NAND flash memory, widely used in Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod and other portable electronics devices. - Reuters.com

NAND is the name of the low level architecture and interface of solid state disks flash memory

This entry was posted on October 15, 2006 and is filed under News.