Apple ordering 50m flash chips for iPhone?

Apple is crowding out other orders for flash memory at Samsung through orders connected to the iPhone, according to reports from some of Samsung's smaller customers. The American company has allegedly ordered 50 million of Samsung's eight gigabit (one gigabyte) chips that are primarily intended for the iPhone 3G and is putting enough pressure on Samsung's supply that the Korean firm is informing smaller firms that their own orders are being reduced to keep Apple in healthy supply.

The iPhone-related demand is compounded by Samsung reducing production in April and May to prevent an oversupply later in the year, an effect which is only now kicking in, the Samsung clients say. Apple also reportedly ordered half as many NAND chips in June.

Estimating Apple's production of iPhones themselves isn't immediately possible through flash memory supplies. Each iPhone typically uses multiple stacked chips, while it's unclear as to whether 16GB models use the same memory or else use 16-gigabit or larger chips.