IPod hot South Korea four IT giants won a $1 billion 250 million single

South Korea's two largest chip maker Samsung Corp and modern electronic industry company announced yesterday, the two companies have signed an agreement with the Apple Com puter Inc in the United States, will be the company's $750 million NAND flash memory chip.

The previous day, Intel Ltd. (IntelCorp., hereinafter referred to as "Intel") and America micron (Micron TechnologyInc., hereinafter referred to as "micron") also agreed to set up a joint venture, used in the production of consumer electronics products, flash memory products. The same day, Intel and micron said the new company has received $500 million in a single Apple Com puter Inc.

The total amount of orders received by the four companies in the $1 billion 250 million, the order of the flash products involved are related to iPod.

Samsung and modern electronic $750 million single

Samsung Corp and Hyundai Electronics Industries said the deal was part of Apple Corp's global NAND development program. According to the plan, before 2010, Apple Corp and the world will be a number of major chip manufacturers signed a total of $1 billion 250 million NAND flash chip production contract.

Samsung Corp pointed out that it has received a long-term contract for Apple's $500 million NAND flash memory chips by 2010. Hyundai Electronics Company received a total contract of $250 million.

Intel, micron joint venture production

Said Intel and micron in 21 days jointly issued a press release, a new company called IM Flash Technologies LLC, Intel and micron technology, the initial investment was about $1 billion 200 million. Micron and Intel respectively hold 51% and 49% of the shares in the new company. In the next three years, Intel and micron will add about $1 billion 400 million in investment. The new company is expected to be put into operation in early 2006, the main production of NAND flash memory products. NAND products are widely used in consumer electronics such as iPod, music players, digital cameras, removable storage devices and handheld communication devices. According to the agreement with the Apple Corp, the Apple Corp has agreed to Intel and micron respectively $250 million in advance, the agreement deadline is 2010.

The industry generally believe that the NAND market outlook is a good situation. According to the Wall Street journal, sales have increased by about 45% this year. Apple Corp because of its huge success of iPod products, has become a large consumer NAND.

Apple CEO Jia Perth (SteveJobs), said the company hopes to comply with market demand, the production of enough ipod. Meguiar's CEO Appleton said that the current global NAND demand, even if there is no Apple Corp orders, micron and Intel will also set up a joint venture company. Appleton expects the NAND market will increase by 100% to 120% per year.

Currently, NAND flash exists in many consumer electronics products have been widely used in the past few years it has been hot selling products. Apple Corp is one of the largest users of flash memory in the world. It uses NAND flash memory to store songs in popular iPod digital music players.