Digitimes is reporting that lofty contract prices for 16Gb and 32Gb MLC NAND chips is expected to harm the adoption rate of SSDs throughout 2009 and 2010.

The penetration of SSDs will only reach 1-1.5% in the regular notebook sector in 2009, and less than 10% in the low-cost PC segment, according to a recent survey by DRAMeXchange. Despite optimism, SSDs are still finding it hard to gain broader appeal due to higher NAND flash prices.

Latest quotes gathered by inSpectrum show that the average contract price of 16Gb and 32Gb multi-level cell (MLC) chips stood at US$4.04 and US$7.12, respectively, in the second half of May, compared to around US$2 and US$4 earlier in the year.