The global supply of NAND flash memory will remain tight in the third quarter of 2013, due to brisk demand for smartphones and tablets, and the growing adoption of SSDs among servers and large data centers, according to industry observers.

　　The continued tight supply of NAND flash memory will push up chip prices further in the third quarter, said the observers. NAND flash contract prices have staged a rally since June.

　　Smartphones and tablets use embedded NAND solutions, such as eMMC and eMCP which can be easily integrated into space-constrained designs. In anticipation of seasonal demand increases, embedded NAND devices will remain in short supply during the third quarter, the observers indicated.

　　Mobile DRAM is another type of memory for use in mobile devices. Chip supply will also fall short of demand in the third quarter, the observers added.

　　In addition, SSDs that use NAND-based flash memory begin to replace traditional hard disk drives (HDD) in data centers, servers and workstations. Recently more system manufacturers have been gearing up their cloud computing efforts, stepping up the pace of NAND flash procurement for an anticipated huge demand for SSDs for use in servers and workstations, the observers said.