NAND flash vendors will move to stabilize prices for solid-state drives (SSD) in the third quarter of 2015, according to industry sources. Prices for SSDs have dropped to be substantially lower than makers' average hardware costs.

China-based SSD developers adopting downgrade chips in their products triggered a price war in the market, the sources indicated. Having suffered from the price war for about two years, NAND flash vendors have decided to hold their SSD prices.

Prices for SSDs continue to fall, with prices for 256GB models reaching as low as US$66, the sources disclosed. Prices for 256GB SSDs fell below US$100 at the end of 2014, approaching makers' average hardware costs estimated at about US$80, the sources said.

For 128GB SSDs, prices have gone down to US$36-37, lower than the average hardware cost of about US$40, the sources noted.

In addition, with chip vendors migrating to 15nm and 16nm process technologies for the manufacture of mainly 128Gb chips, which will result in fewer wafer starts, prices for NAND flash chips are set to rise in the third quarter, the sources said.

Nevertheless, cheaper SSDs have boosted related chip suppliers' shipments, the sources observed. Controller supplier Phison Electronics' shipments for SSDs have climbed to one million units per month, while JMicron Technology's controller shipments for SSDs have hit the five million mark annually.