SSD prices fall, but still higher than HDDs

Prices of solid state drives (SSDs) continue to fall, but the storage remains nine times more expensive per GB than hard disk drives, according to analysis conducted by price comparison service Idealo.

The company’s research tracked prices of drives over the last six quarters and shows that the price of the most popular SSDs has fallen by 24% during 2012.

According to Idealo, prices for SSDs declined most sharply during two periods. Between Q2 and Q3 of 2011 they fell from €1.69/GB to €1.54/GB, while between Q1 and Q3 this year they have fallen from €1.45/GB to €1.21/GB.

Interestingly, prices for larger capacity devices actually increased at the back end of last year, presumably as customers looked to alternative drives during supply shortages for HDDs in the wake of the Thai flooding.

As a result, Idealo found that the biggest reductions during 2012 were for larger capacity SSDs, with drives between 300GB and 600GB dropping by €213.11 or €0.50 per GB.

By contrast, SSDs at between 120GB and 256GB fell less sharply, but are at least approaching the €1 per GB mark.

Power of competition

The research – based on more than a million clicks on popular storage devices – showed that Samsung and OCZ took the lion’s share of the market, with 28% and 26% respectively, but there were eight other manufacturers that registered a presence in the market.

That’s in stark contrast to the HDD market, where limited competition is keeping prices high.

As we reported during the summer, hard disk prices have not fallen back to pre-flood levels, with mergers between hard drive manufacturers meaning they are in a stronger position to lead on prices.

The Idealo figures showed hard drive prices were still 47% higher then before the crisis despite supplies returning to normal – but still as much as nine times cheaper than SSDs, ranging between €0.06 per GB and €0.26, compared to SSDs, which still haven’t dropped below €1 per GB of storage.