The soaring popularity of MP3 music players is driving demand for NAND flash memory chips faster than suppliers can keep up.Sales of portable media players will grow from 134.5 million units in 2005 to 187.7 million units in 2006, according to a study from the market research firm Gartner released Wednesday.Despite converting factories from dynamic RAM (DRAM) to NAND production, chip makers won’t be able to keep up with such growth. So the market for NAND flash will see a 5.8 percent shortage in the fourth quarter of 2006 and a 2.6 percent shortage in the first quarter of 2007, Gartner said.That could lead to tough competition between flash makers like Toshiba, Samsung Electronics and the newly merged Micron Technology and Lexar Media. In the United States, Intel has made a bid for the business by agreeing with Micron in 2005 to create a joint-venture flash memory company called IM Flash Technologies.The pending flash shortage could be even more severe if Apple Computer releases a high-capacity version of its iPod digital music player, said Joseph Unsworth, a principal research analyst for Gartner. By the end of the year, Apple could launch a flash-based music player with 10GB to 20GB of capacity, far above the 1GB to 4GB capacity of its current flash units.Many devices already have 30GB or 40GB, but they save song data on spinning hard disk drives, not solid state electronics. The industry is changing fast. Eighty percent of the devices made in 2005 used flash memory, with the rest using hard drives.Greater capacity will let designers add new features. The next generation of portable media players will include video playback capability, wireless communication and integration with consumer electronics and cars.Flash memory is popular with designers of digital cameras, mobile phones and digital music players because it can store a huge amount of data without requiring constant power.-Ben Ames, IDG News Service (Boston Bureau)Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Huawei Beyond gigabit: the need for 10 Gbps in business networks Interview with Liu Jianning, Vice President of Huawei's Data Communication Marketing & Solutions Sales Dept By CIO Online Staff Nov 30, 2023 9 mins Cloud Architecture Networking brandpost Sponsored by SAP Generative AI’s ‘show me the money’ moment We’re past the hype and slick gen AI sales pitches. Business leaders want results. By Julia White Nov 30, 2023 5 mins Artificial Intelligence brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers capture real economic value with zero trust Unleashing economic value: Zscaler's Zero Trust Exchange transforms security architecture while cutting costs. By Zscaler Nov 30, 2023 4 mins Security brandpost Sponsored by SAP A cloud-based solution to rescue millions from energy poverty Aware of the correlation between energy and financial poverty, Savannah Energy is helping to generate clean, competitively priced electricity across Africa by integrating its old systems into one cloud-based platform. By Keith E. Greenberg, SAP Contributor Nov 30, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe