Apple rumored to buy flash memory company for $500 million

Posted:
in General Discussion edited November 2014
Apple is planning to spend between $400 million and $500 million to buy Anobit, an Israel-based flash memory company, according to a new report.



Citing a Hebrew-language report, TechCrunch relayed on Tuesday that Apple plans to acquire the 200-employee Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage. If the deal comes to pass, it's believed to be the first acquisition for Apple with Tim Cook at the helm as CEO.



"Anobit provides flash storage solutions for enterprise and mobile markets, based on its proprietary MSP (which stands for 'Memory Signal Processing') technology," the report said. "Its solutions are designed to improve the speed, endurance and performance of flash systems while driving down the cost. Anobit's technology is comprised of signal processing algorithms that compensate for physical limitations of NAND flash, the company claims."



Apple is believed to already rely on Anobit's solutions for its flash-based products, including the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. Of the most interest to Apple is said to be Anobit's MSP20xx embedded flash controllers for mobile devices.



Apple has used its massive cash hoard to strategically invest in components and acquire companies that will give it a leg up on the competition. In 2005, Apple inked a major flash memory deal with Samsung, allowing Apple to build products with NAND flash including the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.







The company made a similar deal earlier this year, when Cook revealed that Apple had committed $3.9 billion to secret, long-term component contracts. Cook said the deals were a "fantastic" use of the company's cash reserves, but declined to say what components Apple had secured, citing competitive reasons.



If Tuesday's report is accurate, it would be a rare hardware-based acquisition for Apple. The company's last major buyout of a hardware company came in 2008, when Apple bought P.A. Semi for $278 million, paving the way for it to build custom ARM-based chips for the iPhone and iPad.
«13

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 56
    realisticrealistic Posts: 1,154member
    IMO Smart use of money by Apple.
  • Reply 2 of 56
    This would be a good move by Apple, the competition would be left in the dust.
  • Reply 3 of 56
    lukeilukei Posts: 379member
    Would be interesting to see their current license arrangements with customers and see if they have a termination clause in the case of acquisition.
  • Reply 4 of 56
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Get ready for the 256 GB iPad and iPhone. You know it's coming. Perhaps not in the next version, but soon enough.



    MSP is included in both Anobit’s MSP20xx embedded flash controllers for phones and tablets – which support up to 256GB of flash each – and a line of Genesis enterprise SSDs.



    Anobit flash can take a pounding for 5 years



    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/11/anobit_genesis/
  • Reply 5 of 56
    pokepoke Posts: 506member
    Sounds smart. I'm sure it won't be long before Apple stops selling anything with a mechanical hard drive altogether.
  • Reply 6 of 56
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by poke View Post


    Sounds smart. I'm sure it won't be long before Apple stops selling anything with a mechanical hard drive altogether.



    Maybe its too soon, but i hope it happens this summer.
  • Reply 7 of 56
    I wonder if AI has an vids of Lisa Brennan-Jobs talking to an Israeli analyst about this deal.
  • Reply 8 of 56
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    with icloud and drop box how much local storage do you REALLY need



    how many of you would buy an ipad with 256gb??



    when schools order iPads they get 16gb



    OK i can understand more local storage on a macbook or imac but isn't local storage

    becoming obsolete (for most consumers)



    i would like to see trended how much local storage people are using since the ipad came out, and over this next year as iCloud is adopted



    my wife wants to migrate to an iPad, so the max i would get her is 32 probably get her a 16

    i don't want to know what's the most common set up, but do people really need and use



    i installed a new 500gb hd on my macbook, but now really looking close at my needs, especially they have dramatically changed since iCloud, iTunes match, and dropbox, gmail etc.

    we are in changing times
  • Reply 9 of 56
    Funny how Anobit's home page says 'making flash better.' Whereas Apple is all about 'killing Flash faster,'
  • Reply 10 of 56
    For some of you, the need for storage may drop. However, for others who live or work in countries with slow and/or unstable Internet access, on board storage will be needed for awhile. Additionally, moving and working on a few hundred raw format photos in the same country will also require the storage. That said, this looks like a good deal and I would readily upgrade my 64GB iPad to 128 or 256 when the time comes.
  • Reply 11 of 56
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post


    Funny how Anobit's home page says 'making flash better.' Whereas Apple is all about 'killing Flash faster,'



    I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not :B
  • Reply 12 of 56
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    I wonder if AI has an vids of Lisa Brennan-Jobs talking to an Israeli analyst about this deal.



    Yes?????
  • Reply 13 of 56
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post


    Funny how Anobit's home page says 'making flash better.' Whereas Apple is all about 'killing Flash faster,'



    You may be thinking of two different 'flashes'. Solid state storage that Apple is implementing and Adobe's Flash that Apple 'doesn't care for'.
  • Reply 14 of 56
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NOFEER View Post


    with icloud and drop box how much local storage do you REALLY need



    I have iCloud storage, Dropbox storage, Amazon cloud storage, Google cloud storage and Gobbler Cloud Storage (for pro audio).



    I view cloud storage simply as extra added security. I still prefer to have most of my stuff locally.



    My current iPad 2 is only 16 GB, but I've bought way more than that amount in apps, so I guess that my next iPad will have to be slightly bigger than 16 GB. And I don't even have any video or much music on my iPad.



    And as iPads become more powerful, with retina displays and more powerful CPU's, GPU's etc., Apps and games will only get bigger. Even today there are games that are around 1 GB.
  • Reply 15 of 56
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post


    Funny how Anobit's home page says 'making flash better.' Whereas Apple is all about 'killing Flash faster,'



    I think that you might be confusing two different types of Flash there.
  • Reply 16 of 56
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Anobit is fabless. Who is going to manufacturer this NAND for Apple?





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    Get ready for the 256 GB iPad and iPhone. You know it's coming. Perhaps not in the next version, but soon enough.



    MSP is included in both Anobit?s MSP20xx embedded flash controllers for phones and tablets ? which support up to 256GB of flash each ? and a line of Genesis enterprise SSDs.



    Anobit flash can take a pounding for 5 years



    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/11/anobit_genesis/



    I'm not so sure this about denser NAND, than it is about faster, more reliable NAND.







    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NOFEER View Post


    with icloud and drop box how much local storage do you REALLY need



    how many of you would buy an ipad with 256gb??



    when schools order iPads they get 16gb



    OK i can understand more local storage on a macbook or imac but isn't local storage

    becoming obsolete (for most consumers)



    i would like to see trended how much local storage people are using since the ipad came out, and over this next year as iCloud is adopted



    my wife wants to migrate to an iPad, so the max i would get her is 32 probably get her a 16

    i don't want to know what's the most common set up, but do people really need and use



    i installed a new 500gb hd on my macbook, but now really looking close at my needs, especially they have dramatically changed since iCloud, iTunes match, and dropbox, gmail etc.

    we are in changing times



    iCloud doesn't lessen the need for local storage. So far iTM doesn't stream, but even if it did movies will continually grow as 720p becomes the standard and then 1080p becomes the standard.



    I have 1TB HDD + 80GB SSD in my MBP and bought a 16GB iPad for the first two versions, but now i find I store a lot more video on ir (as AVIs) that I will be getting at least 32GB as my next purchase (as well as AT&T 3G because I lost my last one).
  • Reply 17 of 56
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NOFEER View Post


    with icloud and drop box how much local storage do you REALLY need



    how many of you would buy an ipad with 256gb??



    when schools order iPads they get 16gb



    OK i can understand more local storage on a macbook or imac but isn't local storage

    becoming obsolete (for most consumers)



    i would like to see trended how much local storage people are using since the ipad came out, and over this next year as iCloud is adopted



    my wife wants to migrate to an iPad, so the max i would get her is 32 probably get her a 16

    i don't want to know what's the most common set up, but do people really need and use



    i installed a new 500gb hd on my macbook, but now really looking close at my needs, especially they have dramatically changed since iCloud, iTunes match, and dropbox, gmail etc.

    we are in changing times



    As long as you are within reach of hispeed wifi 16gb is probably sufficient. But this restricts your mobility. So either waiting for higher mobile network speeds (3-10 years depending where you live, or full coverage with free wifi ( 10 years - never) or going for higher memory in mobile devices.



    I took the 64Gb iPad2 3G and would still buy a 128Gb version if available. (maybe I am nuts? but WTH).



  • Reply 18 of 56
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    Anobit is fabless. Who is going to manufacturer this NAND for Apple?



    Toshiba and Samsung?



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    I'm not so sure this about denser NAND, than it is about faster, more reliable NAND.



    Yeah, their specialty seems to be making controllers. Controllers make a big difference in Flash memory. That's why I paid extra for an Intel SSD a while back, as theirs seemed to be more reliable than anybody else's at the time.
  • Reply 19 of 56
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    Yeah, their specialty seems to be making controllers. Controllers make a big difference in Flash memory. That's why I paid extra for an Intel SSD a while back, as theirs seemed to be more reliable than anybody else's at the time.



    Same boat. Went for the slightly pricer Intel 80GB MLC G2 even though I could get more capacity at less price with a faster Sandforce controller from other vendors. But the reliability just wasn't good enough for me.



    It's been a couple years since I installed it and used OptiBay in my MBP and it's great. I have nary a negative complaint to make.
  • Reply 20 of 56
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    Same boat. Went for the slightly pricer Intel 80GB MLC G2 even though I could get more capacity at less price with a faster Sandforce controller from other vendors. But the reliability just wasn't good enough for me.



    It's been a couple years since I installed it and used OptiBay in my MBP and it's great. I have nary a negative complaint to make.



    Haha, same here. I bought an Intel 80 GB about a few years ago, and it's still working perfect. I'd been reading some horror stories about people using SSD, so I wasn't going to take any chances.



    Either way, I use Time Machine which makes auto backups, so if something were to happen, it's not a big deal.
Sign In or Register to comment.