When Apple goes on a memory buying binge, the tech world sits up ad takes notice. The company has reportedly ordered some 100 million 8Gb NAND flash chips, primarily from Samsung. The ginormous order is expected by some analysts to cause something of a shortage, with added demand from companies like Nokia and Sony.

The timing of the order, of course, points to the anticipated release of new iPhone models this summer. But why such a large order? After all, at a maximum capacity of 16GB, that's an awful lot of handsets, right? Even for one as popular as the iPhone. Of course, no would be too shocked if the next iteration of the handset were bumped up to, say, 32GB...