Sony Could Stoke Flash Fire

Sony(SNE Quote) could be the next growth engine for the red-hot market for flash memory. On Monday, South Korea's Samsung Electronics disclosed that it may sell flash chips to the consumer electronics giant, as well as other "major companies."

The announcement followed reports in the Korean press that Samsung, the world's No. 1 memory chip maker, was nearing a deal to supply Sony with flash chips for a new line of MP3 players in the first half of next year. According to the report, the deal would exceed the deal Samsung signed last month with Apple Computer(AAPL Quote).

In November, Apple announced that it was preordering $1.25 billion worth of flash chips from a variety of suppliers, including Samsung, Toshiba and Hynix (it's unclear what portion of the deal Samsung has). At the same time, Intel(INTC Quote) and Micron(MU Quote) announced that they were forming a joint venture to produce flash memory chips, with a $500 million order from Apple already on the books. ...