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Toshiba sings NAND Flash's praises, thinks you should too

Sarah Silbert
Updated ·4 min read

Have you taken a moment today to stop and thank NAND Flash for existing? No? Well, Toshiba would like to say tsk, tsk. Today the company launched a full-scale campaign to promote this storage technology -- and by full-scale we mean a dedicated "25 Years of NAND Flash" website, a "NAND Flash Deprivation Experiment" video series, new Facebook and Twitter accounts and a Toshiba Excite 10 giveaway. We must have missed the memo that NAND was dangerously underappreciated, because we're still trying to figure out why it needs a marketing campaign of its own. Toshiba has a slew of laptop refreshes and the Excite 7.7 and 13 tablets just around the corner -- and that interim period between announcement and launch date can be killer -- but somehow talking up NAND Flash doesn't seem the right course of action. Take a look at the campaign's first video below the break and decide for yourself.


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25 Years After Inventing the Disruptive Technology, Toshiba Launches Campaign to Look at Its Impact

IRVINE, CA--(Marketwire - May 1, 2012) - Imagine a day without your smartphone, music player, tablet, or any of your other favorite portable devices -- these are examples of the scenarios that Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., (TAEC)*, a committed leader that collaborates with technology companies to create breakthrough designs, explores in its new NAND Flash Deprivation Experiment campaign. Launched to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Toshiba's invention of NAND flash, the campaign takes a look at what happens when people are deprived of NAND flash -- and all of the everyday devices they use that are enabled by it.

What is NAND Flash?
A form of non-volatile memory, NAND flash technology is low-power and extremely durable, offering high-capacity data storage with fast erase, write and read capabilities. It was named "flash" because it only took a few seconds to erase the chip -- as compared to the main technology at the time, EPROMs, which took about 20 minutes to erase under an ultraviolet light.

Where is NAND Flash Now?
Since inventing the technology in 1987, Toshiba has seen the market for NAND flash memory grow by leaps and bounds. Enabling the mobility of content in today's consumer products, NAND flash has become the de facto silicon storage of choice for everything from memory cards and USB drives to solid state drives and enterprise flash arrays.

Getting the Word Out: The Campaign
Toshiba's interactive campaign that explores the impact of NAND flash features:

Video Series: This series of brief videos takes a humorous look at what life might be like without NAND flash. Visit www.flash25.toshiba.com/#watch for a first look at Toshiba's NAND Flash Deprivation Experiment: Evidence that life without flash technology would be a cruel experiment, indeed!

25 Years of NAND Flash website: A new website launched to be a one-stop shop for all things related to the 25th anniversary of NAND flash. Visit www.flash25.toshiba.com to see each NAND Flash Deprivation Experiment video as they roll out throughout the year. The site also features a timeline of notable NAND flash achievements over the past 25 years, images, industry voices, and much more.

Facebook: Get involved - Like Toshiba's 25th anniversary of NAND flash page on Facebook to join the conversation: www.facebook.com/Flash25Toshiba.

Twitter: Follow Toshiba on Twitter to stay up to date on all of the latest campaign happenings: @Flash25_Toshiba.

Giveaways: For U.S. residents, like www.facebook.com/Flash25Toshiba on Facebook and enter in the drawing to win one of five Toshiba Excite Tablets! Measuring just 0.35 inches thin and weighing a mere 1.32 pounds, the Excite 10 tablet is extremely portable. And thanks to the 16GB of flash memory on board, you'll be able to store large volumes of photos, books, videos, games, music, and other data. Additionally, each month, the first 100 people in the U.S. to like the Facebook page and enter to win will receive a free NAND Flash Deprivation Experiment t-shirt.

Supporting Quotes - Industry Analysts Chime In:

Greg Wong, Founder and Principal Analyst, Forward Insights

"NAND flash memory is the great enabler. Its form factor advantage over HDDs has enabled the era of portable digital storage -- allowing consumers to carry their content with them anywhere -- possible. Its performance advantage has facilitated the convergence of multiple functions -- voice, e-mail, video, imaging, gaming, navigation -- into one personal mobile device. And now, its cost advantage over DRAM is enabling the instantaneous accessing and sharing of content through the cloud."

Jeff Janukowicz, Research Director, IDC

"Over the last few years NAND has become the de facto standard for storage in many consumer devices. Now, NAND is on the cusp of making significant inroads into another market segment -- the computing market. NAND technology is poised to change the PC experience and become a key building block for the enterprise."