SSD - Solid-state drive (global market)

This article is about the market. For more information on SSD technology, see SSD - SSD

2024: The rise in popularity of solid state drives: what you need to know

Let’s take a look at the distribution and factors influencing the availability of solid state drives (SSDs) across different parts of the world. By understanding how SSD manufacturing is spread globally we can gain insights, into the industry’s growth and the opportunities it presents. More details here.

2021

The global SSD market rose 12.2%. Rating

At the end of 2021, a total of 373.2 million solid-state drives entered the global market, which is 12.2% more than a year earlier. The total capacity of devices sold during this time increased by 29% and reached 266.3 Ebytes. This is evidenced by data from Trendfocus analysts, which were released in February 2022.

According to experts, the total flash memory capacity (used not only in SSDs, but also, for example, in drives for mobile devices and other consumer electronics) was 597.8 Ebytes (the dynamics are not specified). Thus, solid-state drives accounted for more than half of the supply of memory.

The study also said the global SSD market experienced "healthy growth" in 2021 despite a shortage of components. At the same time, shipments of solid-state drives exceeded shipments of hard drives by 44%, which indicates that the multi-year trend of manufacturers switching to SSDs remains. At the same time, the HDD market has also grown significantly - by a third in terms of the total capacity of the disks sold.

The Trendfocus report does not show the balance of power among solid-state drive manufacturers for the whole of 2021, only data for the fourth quarter is indicated. Samsung Electronics remains the market leader, accounting for about 26% of equipment deliveries in the last three months of 2021. In second place is Western Digital with 15.2 percent. The top three was closed by SK Hynix, which recorded 12.5% in the asset.

Speaking about Samsung's leadership, experts noted that the South Korean corporation has its own production lines that produce chips, and only it, in addition to TSMC, has its own 5-nanometer pipelines. This advantage may allow it to increase its share in the global SSD market.

Solid-state drives rose in price throughout 2021, according to the study. Analysts associate what is happening with two global factors. The first is the global shortage of semiconductor components caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The second factor is the growing demand for solid-state drives, the reason for which TrendForce does not explain in any way. The company only cites as an example data centers that have significantly increased the volume of purchases of 8-terabyte enterprise-grade SSDs.

There is another very reason that affects the rise in price of all solid-state drives. This is the Chia cryptocurrency, which, unlike bitcoin and other tokens, needs to be mined using SSDs or hard drives.

Despite the difficulties caused by the consequences of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the form of a shortage in the supply of components that are under threat from value chains and inflationary risk for products, experts predict a CAGR of 17.2% until 2026. This is due primarily to the fact that the global trend towards a sharp increase in demand for data storage will continue to increase. At the same time, solutions designed to cover this need are associated with two types of storage: solid-state drives and hard drives. Both types are classified as non-volatile memory, but the SSD has a number of competitive advantages that can bring this type of memory to a leading position. HDDs appeared earlier and work due to a rotating disk and a drive lever moving along the recording tracks. Only relatively longer use and more volume (up to 10 TB) allow them to remain on the market^[1]

SSD sales in the world reached $53.83 billion

The volume of the global solid-state drive market in 2021 reached $53.83 billion. This was announced on March 4, 2022 by analysts at ResearchAndMarkets. They did not specify the dynamics in comparison with 2020, but noted that SSD sales increased and will grow in the future.

According to the researchers' forecasts, in the period 2022-2029. the average annual growth rate of the global solid-state drive market will be 15%, and by the end of this period of time sales will reach $143.56 billion.

SSD sales in the world for the year reached $53.8 billion

Experts consider the integration of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, with such devices in the industrial sector as one of the drivers of SSD market growth. The use of solid-state drives in production equipment reduces the size of IIoT devices. At the same time, the requirements of regulators in various countries and trade barriers can become restraining factors, the study says.

The following companies were named the largest manufacturers of solid-state drives in 2021 (their share was not specified):

• DataDirect Networks;
• Intel;
• NetApp;
• Kingston Technology;
• Micron Technology;
• Samsung Electronics;
• Seagate Technology;
• Sony;
• Toshiba;
• IBM.

North America remained the largest SSD market in 2021. The presence of a developed infrastructure, which implies the fastest introduction of advanced technologies, helped this region to become a flagship in the global market. To gain competitive advantage and increase business productivity, North American companies are constantly increasing their IT infrastructure costs. Time savings, fast data transfer rates, and equally high performance make SSDs the most suitable option for such conditions. The further introduction of advanced technologies in the region (cloud computing, the Internet of Things, Big Data, cloud technologies, etc.) guarantees the constant need for this type of storage and will stimulate the growth of the SSD market, analysts say.

Since the entrance barrier is very high, the emergence of new players on the market should hardly be expected. However, existing manufacturers are forced to focus on introducing innovations, improving and differentiating products, which is designed to increase both the demand for the product in the region and the revenues of manufacturing companies. For example, in May 2021, Micron announced new solid state drives that deliver NVMe performance for user computing applications. The M.2 Micron 2300 Solid-State Drive delivers 2 TB of capacity with 96-layer 3D NAND technology. The Micron 2210 SSD uses a QLC architecture to reduce power consumption.

Samsung SSD

In addition, experts from Seagate Technology, an American data storage company, expect that the request to place data closer to the consumer (in order to reduce download speed), as well as the regulatory requirements prescribing their local placement in different regions, will allow a significant increase in demand for SSD storage.

At the same time, the largest growth rate in sales of solid-state drives is expected in the Asia-Pacific region, since, according to analysts, against the background of an increase in disposable income of the population there will be sales of electronics and cars will grow. In addition, SSDs are increasingly used in medical systems, which should also spur sales of such drives in the Asia-Pacific region.^[2]

2020

SSD modules market sank 1% to 111.5 million units

In early November 2021, TrendForce analysts published some results of a study on the global solid state drive (SSD) market in a modular form factor. Deliveries of such devices in 2020 reached 111.5 million units, of which Kingston Technology accounted for 27% of shipments. This is the highest among the leaders.

Next is a dense group of companies producing SSD modules, with shares from 3% to 8%. In comparison with 2019, the volume of the solid-state drive market in 2020 decreased by 15% due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which led to problems with production and logistics.

The largest manufacturers of SSD modules, TrendForce data

The researchers note that in their calculations they took into account the supply of modules from manufacturers to partners (distributors and vendors), and not the sale of products to end consumers. At the same time, the situation with supplies in the channel fully reflects the situation on the market, analysts point out.

Kingston Technology's strong performance in the market is largely due to the companies' strong relationships with customers and trading partners around the world, they said. As the ongoing health crisis swept the world and businesses quickly adapted, Kingston continued to offer top-level sales support and access to its own experts and product engineers who embody the "Kingston Is With You" working approach that led to three successful decades of reliability and customer support.

TrendForce notes that Kingston's leading position in the module-shaped SSD market is not surprising, as the same approach in the DRAM division led the company to become the largest third-party memory module supplier for the 18th consecutive year. Kingston has no plans to slow down, having just added two PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs to its portfolio with the addition of KC3000 SSDs and Kingston FURY Renegade. High-performance drives have joined the Kingston family of client SSDs to allow those who need speed and reliability to handle intense gaming and application workloads on desktops and laptops.

SSD modules market in 2020 sank by 1% to 111.5 million units

The pandemic has accelerated demand for SSDs for remote work and training, which are key factors in last year's surge, which will continue from 2021 to next year, said Keith Schimmenti, SSD manager at Kingston, commenting on the study.

A significant impact on the market, as noted, had a pandemic. On the one hand, the spread of the coronavirus has led to an increase in demand for corporate SSDs due to the rapid development of cloud platforms. In particular, the need for services for organizing remote work and distance learning has sharply increased.

On the other hand, due to the restrictions associated with the pandemic, there was a shortage of electronic components. And this negatively affected the capabilities of manufacturers in terms of the supply of solid-state drives.

Currently, the growth of SSD shipments is facilitated by lower prices for NAND flash memory and the further development of the data center segment. Against this background, the volume of the global market for solid-state enterprise-class devices is predicted to rise in monetary terms from $17.85 billion in 2020 to $46.89 billion by 2030. Thus, the average annual growth rate in complex percentages (CAGR value) during this period will be approximately 10.2%.^[3]

SSD segment outperforms HDD segment in pieces by 28% (333.12 million SSD devices) - TrendFocus

For the first time, solid-state drives were ahead of hard drives in terms of deliveries in kind. This happened in 2020, according to data from TrendFocus analysts.

According to experts, in 2020, manufacturers around the world shipped 333.12 million SSD devices, which is 20.8% less compared to 2019. At the same time, output HDD in comparison with the same periods decreased by 18%, to 259.81 million units. Thus, the SSD segment was 28% ahead of the HDD segment in pieces.

At the same time, in terms of the total capacity of the sold drives, hard drives overtook solid-state drives by almost five times. In 2020, the total capacity of the delivered SSDs increased by 50.4% (to 207.39 Ebytes), in the case of HDD, there was a rise of 13% (to 1018 Ebytes). The average solid state drive capacity sold in 2020 was 0.67 TB versus 4 TB for a hard drive.

SSDs sell more than hard drives for the first time in 2020

According to experts, despite all the advantages of SSDs, traditional "hard drives" are still widely represented on the market due to the fact that they offer higher data capacity and a better product price ratio to one gigabyte of storage compared to SSDs.

At the same time, the penetration of solid-state drives in the personal computer market continues to increase. Thus, according to Micron estimates, almost 70% of laptops and PCs released in 2020 were equipped with SSD data storage devices. Moreover, in the segment of ultra-thin and ultra-light laptops, as well as models for the commercial sector, the SSD penetration rate reached 90%.

Researchers attribute the growth of the solid-state drive market to their advantages, such as cost-effectiveness, high performance and energy efficiency. SSDs are increasingly used in computing environments used for cloud services, big data analysis and smart devices.

The TrendFocus report said that the enterprise solid state drive segment showed growth during the first three quarters of 2020, but there was a decline in October-December. The market required a correction of the available stocks of finished products. The leader of the fall was drives with an SAS interface, which consistently reduced sales volumes by 31%, and in capacitive terms lost 34%.

Worldwide, 87.45 million SSD devices with a total capacity of 54.6 Ebytes were released in the 4th quarter of 2020 - market leaders

The European market accounted for 17% of annual sales of solid-state drives. The region is expected to grow the market by approximately 15% due to the expansion of hyperscale data centers and growing requirements for huge corporate data warehouses. Owners of large data centers in Europe are increasingly focusing on colocation services and the development of hyperscale projects for big data storage and business data management. All this spurs demand for solid-state drives.

According to Trendfocus research for the fourth quarter of 2020, the largest manufacturer of solid-state drives (by the number of products supplied) is Samsung Electronics, which accounted for 26.1% of equipment deliveries. In second place is Western Digital with 20.3 percent. The top three was closed by Kioxia (formerly Toshiba Memory). The balance of power at the end of 2020 is not given.

In the last three months of 2020, 87.45 million SSD devices with a total capacity of 54.6 Ebytes were released worldwide. If we consider the total capacity of the supplied equipment, then here Samsung leads by a higher margin from competitors - the share of the South Korean giant in the fourth quarter reached 32.8%. Western Digital accounted for 15.4%, Intel - 11.8%, SK Hynix - 10.1%.^[4]

2019: Market growth 36% to 276m

The global solid-state drive market in 2019 amounted to 276 million units, which is 36% more than a year earlier. This is evidenced by data from the research company Trendfocus. At the same time, according to the calculations of Forward Insights experts, manufacturers in 2019 supplied partners with 120 million SSDs.

According to Trendfocus Vice President Don Jeanette, SSD sales are increasing due to lower prices. In addition, the market is helped by a strong demand for equipment from data center operators, the expert is sure.

The global solid-state drive market volume in 2019 amounted to 276 million units, which is 36% more than a year earlier

NAND flash memory consumption remained high as SSD shipments continued to grow throughout the year, experts say.

Trendfocus gives Samsung, Western Digital and Kingston Technology leadership in the solid state drive market (companies are listed depending on the place occupied in 2019). Analysts do not name the shares of these vendors, except Kingston (10.4%).

According to Forward Insights, Kingston accounted for 18.3% of SSD shipments to the global distribution channel at the end of 2019. Western Digital and Samsung followed with results of 16.5% and 15.1%, respectively.

Commenting on the figures, Forward Insights President and Chief Analyst Gregory Wong noted that very high demand for SSDs in sales channels has remained, as evidenced by a 36 percent increase in storage supplies compared to 2018.

Kingston's competitive product range and wide distribution network have allowed the company to double the market in growth, he stressed.

Kingston itself attributes its successes to continued growth in the client, corporate and OEM sectors. Since 2019, Kingston has expanded its SSD portfolio with three new client SSDs, five drives for, DPC two of which achieved VMware Ready status, and launched its first solution U.2 NVMe PCIe. 

Analytical company TrendForce presented the results of a study of the global market for branded solid-state drives that come in retail. In 2019, the supply of such equipment amounted to 81 million units, an increase of 50%.

Kingston Technology, Adata Technology and Tigo are named the largest manufacturers of SSD modules that produce products under their own brand, but do not produce their own NAND flash memory chips.

Flash memory suppliers (among them Samsung, Western Digital, Micron, SK Hynix and Intel) accounted for about 35% of solid state drive shipments to the retail market. The share of manufacturers of individual SSD modules (including companies that produce devices under their own brand or supply to branded customers) has reached almost 65%.

TrendForce analysis shows that about 60% of the total retail shipments of solid-state drives were from manufacturers of modules in the top ten. Kingston firmly holds the top spot with a dominant 25% market share thanks to the popularity of its brand.

SSD sales increase as prices drop

In addition, Kingston has been among the top three in sales of USB drives and memory cards for many years. The company could strengthen its position in other segments to strengthen its presence in the SSD market, the study said.

Kingston's pursuers are far behind the leader and have close market shares. ADATA is in second position, which is also helped by wide brand recognition. Other factors that helped the manufacturer include the flexibility of retail pricing and active promotion in key markets, including USA Europe, Japan and. South Korea^[5]

2018: Prices fall to historic low

At the end of November 2018, it became known that the cost of solid-state drives fell to a historic minimum. Moreover, most likely, prices will continue to decline.

According to TechPowerUP, the 2-terabyte Crucial MX500 SSD can be purchased in retail for $209, which in terms of one gigabyte corresponds to a record low of 10 cents. Initially, the cost of this model was $500.

Solid-State Drive and Flash Cost Forecast

The publication, citing unnamed analysts, writes that the price of one gigabyte of flash memory in 2019 may fall to 8 cents, and the release of competitive solutions, like QLC stores from, Samsung may still increase the trend of falling prices.

Wikibon says that the average annual price reduction for solid-state drives is 30%, while hard drives are not getting cheaper so rapidly - by about 30%. But HDDs in general cost less than SSDs. In 2017, the cost of one gigabyte in the hard drive market approached 2 cents, as evidenced by the graph below.

An even cheaper option for storing data remains magnetic tape, the prices of which, according to experts, will decrease by 23% annually until 2023.

In November 2018, DRAMeXchange analysts reported that there is an oversupply in the flash memory market, which is likely to remain in 2019.

According to statistics from the ChinaFlashMarket portal, the weighted average price of flash memory dropped 63% by the end of October 2018, and the cost of the most popular solid-state drives decreased by 50% compared to the previous year.

According to industry sources DigiTimes, prices for branded SSDs of 240 GB fell to $31 in the fourth quarter of 2018, and 480-gigabyte models began to cost $58. Drives from non-brand suppliers have also lost in price and are now offered for $25 and $45, respectively.^[6]

2017: 3-4% market drop to 55M Manufacturer rating

In October 2018, the analytical company DRAMeXchange published the results of a study of the global solid-state drive market. Its volume in 2017 amounted to 55 million units, having decreased by 3-4% compared to the previous year.

Vendors that produce SSDs based on their own flash memory (Samsung, Toshiba, Western Digital, Micron Technology, SK Hynix, Intel , etc.) shipped 10% fewer drives compared to 2016. At the same time, equipment supplies from companies that create only SSD modules (memory, controllers, etc., are purchased from other manufacturers) and sell them under their own brand increased by 2-3% and reached 60% of the total market volume. 40% of sales respectively came from SSD manufacturers with their own NAND flash chips.

Samsung Solid-State Drive

Analysts attributed the fall in the SSD market to a lack of flash memory, which was pronounced in the first half of 2017 and weakened somewhat in the second half of the year. Faced with problematic supplies, NAND flash chip manufacturers have changed their business focus: fewer SSD solutions have begun to be produced, emphasizing cooperation with suppliers of personal computers and servers, where margins are higher.

Kingston Technology remains the largest manufacturer of SSD modules created on the basis of third-party components, whose share in this segment in 2017 was 23%. Adata Technology and Tigo were among the top three with indicators of 8% and 7%, respectively. Participants in the top ten, except Kingston, have close shares and control about 67% of SSD shipments globally.

List of the largest SSD manufacturers that do not develop their own flash memory, but purchase it on the side, DRAMeXchange data

Adata Technology came second due to operating in potentially attractive markets outside,, and Europe USA. China In addition, the company increased retail prices for its products amid increased flash memory costs, the DRAMeXchange report said.^[7]

2014

Samsung is twice as good as Intel in SSD sales

On April 20, 2015, analysts IHS Markit (formerly IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd.) published the results of a survey of the global market SSDs for 2014. Samsung Electronics (Samsung Electronics Rus) unconditionally leading on it, having a two-time gap from the nearest pursuer. Intel^[8]

According to experts, in January-December 2014, 83 million solid-state drives worth $11.8 billion were sold worldwide. About 34% (almost $4 billion) of this revenue went to Samsung, which is twice as much as Intel, whose revenues in the SSD market in 2014 amounted to $2 billion.

Intel was able to increase sales by almost half, which allowed the American corporation to get ahead of its compatriot SanDisk, which closed the top three vendors in the market under consideration with a 17 percent market share. Samsung SSD sales growth rate was measured at 53% in 2014.

According to analysts, in 2015 Samsung will strengthen its position in the global SSD market

Experts are confident that Samsung will not only maintain its dominant position in 2015, but will also be able to increase the gap from competitors, having recorded 35% of global sales of solid-state drives, while Intel will remain at its 17%.

On the way to strengthen its position, Samsung released NVMe-based drives and a line of Samsung T1 portable devices in the first half of 2015. In addition, the corporation has begun mass production of 3D V-NAND chips, which no competitor can boast of.

In addition to Samsung, Intel and SanDisk, Micron Technology and Toshiba are also major SSD manufacturers. They ended 2014 with shares of 8% and 7% in the market, respectively.

According to the IHS forecast, the global SSD market will grow at an average of 21% per year between 2015 and 2019. The rise is in stark contrast to falling demand for hard drives, with analysts expecting annual HDD sales to decline by an average of 3% during 2015-2019 and reach 389 million units by the end of the forecast period.

The top three have changed in the corporate SSD market

On May 11, 2015, the results of a study by Gartner analysts of the global market for solid-state drives purchased by companies for business needs were published. It turned out that device sales are growing rapidly, and most of the demand is for server solutions.

According to experts, in 2014, the market for enterprise-class SSD devices amounted to $5.77 billion, which is 30% more than in the previous year. Server drive sales reached about $3.9 billion, and the rest was occupied by products used in disk arrays.

In 2014, she sold the most corporate solid-state drives Intel - in the amount of $1.58 billion, which corresponds to 27.4% of the total revenue in the market under consideration.

SanDisk equals Samsung in sales of corporate solid state drives

The entry into SanDisk the leading three deserves special attention. The American company, thanks to the takeover of the developer ON and equipment based on flash memory Fusion-io , was able to earn about $848.2 million on corporate SSDs in 2014. The same income was recorded and. Samsung Thus, SanDisk and Samsung shared the second position in the list of major manufacturers.

The company, which is part of the TOP-3 in 2013 Western Digital , completed 2014 with sales of SSD devices for business users in the amount of $590 million and 10.2 percent share. The top five also included, Micron whose annual revenue in the market amounted to $294 million, corresponding to 5.1% in global volume.

Gartner also calculated that in 2014 the size of the global market for All-Flash Array (AFA) arrays grew by only 1% to $1.4 billion, where the EMC leader received 31.1% of revenue. Interestingly, in 2013, the American corporation earned only $74 million on these products, and a year later, revenues rose sixfold.

Pure Storage took the second place in terms of the implementation of AFA solutions with a presence rate of 19.4%. They are followed by IBM (16.4%), then - (NetApp 7.7%) and (HP 7.2%). There were no companies in the group of leaders Cisco , which Dell means that in 2014 they earned DSS less than $50 million from the sale of flash, The Register notes.^[9]

2011: IDC predicts fast growth in SSD market

Technological progress, changes in the dynamics of the development of the PC industry, the release of new models of industrial servers and new storage architectures, as well as a short-term crisis in the hard drive market will allow the solid state storage market SSD to significantly increase in volume from 2011 to 2015.

According to a new IDC study released in mid-January 2011, the global solid-state drive market in 2011 amounted to $5 billion, which is 105% more than in 2010 - then the market was measured at $2.4 billion. At the same pace, the market will develop in the future, analysts predict.

Jeff Janukowicz, IDC Research Director, noted that 2011 was a record year for the global SSD market.

"The increasing penetration of flash memory into the corporate market, the explosive growth of mobile devices and the reduction in prices for solid-state drives create the ideal conditions for increasing the supply and revenue from the sale of SSDs," he said.

According to the IDC report, the average annual growth of shipments in the global SSD market between 2010 and 2015 will be 51.5%. At the same time, the price factor will remain key for further adaptation of solid-state drives. Analysts expect customer SSD prices to drop to $1 per 1GB in the second half of 2012, which will seriously accelerate the adaptation of technology among PC users.

The growth in the penetration of portable mobile devices such as tablets and ultrabooks also creates positive dynamics in the SSD market, since solid-state drives are usually used in pocket-type devices. The growth in the supply of hybrid systems that support both SSD HDD and format also plays a role.

Flooding in Thailand will continue to negatively impact the hard drive (HDD) market in the short term. For SSD providers, this will create additional positive opportunities. The use of solid state drives as an alternative to hard drives for enterprise applications will serve to strengthen SSD's position in the business segment.

See also

White Paper: Solid-State Drive

• Hard Drives (Russian Market)
• Hard Drives (Global Market)
• Solid-state drives - SSD (Russian market)

Notes