1Q 2017: SSD Global market share: Intel 40%+, Samsung 25% and WD 20%

Global shipments of enterprise-grade SSDs for the first quarter of 2017 grew against seasonal headwinds by 3-4% compared with the prior quarter to reach around 6 million units, says DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. For the same quarter, enterprise-grade SSDs also represented more than 10% of the total SSD product shipments worldwide. 

Currently, U.S.-based Google, Facebook and Microsoft and China’s Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent all have voracious appetite for server systems as they are providing their services via their growing network of data centers. These companies therefore are contributing substantially to the global demand for enterprise-grade SSDs.

“Compared with other end applications for NAND Flash, enterprise-grade SSDs have exhibited strong and dramatic demand growth and will continue to do so this second quarter,” said Alan Chen, senior research manager of DRAMeXchange.

Samsung with its 3D-NAND SSDs is quickly catching up to Intel in shipment market share

Looking at the competition among first-tier SSD makers, Samsung has quickly captured a significant chunk of the enterprise-grade market with its competitively priced and high performing 3D-NAND SSDs. Samsung’s global market share for enterprise-grade SSDs came to 25% in this first quarter, making the company the second largest supplier worldwide and a major rival to the leader Intel.

Intel, while being the leader enterprise storage solutions, has been feeling the pressure from Samsung. Before the first quarter of 2017, Intel had fallen behind in its development of 3D-NAND SSDs. The company had to offer products that were not as cost competitive as Samsung’s because they were based on older memory manufacturing technologies. 

To attract customers, Intel not only lowered prices but also emphasized that its SSDs complement its server processors.

After persevering into the first quarter of this year, Intel was able to ship its 3D-NAND products in greater volumes. 

The company’s global market share in enterprise-grade SSD segment therefore returned to above 40% for the first quarter.

Third-place Western Digital controls over 20% of the enterprise-grade SSD market owing to its acquisition of SanDisk

Western Digital’s shipments of enterprise-grade SSDs has been on the rise since the SanDisk acquisition, and the company became the third-largest supplier worldwide in the first quarter of 2017 with a market share of more than 20%. 

SanDisk’s product lines have benefited considerably from its parent company’s expertise in enterprise storage as well as the larger client base. At the same time, Western Digital also integrated into its portfolio some specialty products that SanDisk has worked on in the past several years.

Following Intel, Samsung and Western Digital are smaller SSD suppliers with respective shipment market shares of less than 5%. Factors that put these smaller competitors behind include the quality of their NAND Flash chips, lack of know-how in developing SSD controller chips and inexperience with the client sampling process. 

However, Chen pointed out that the competition in the enterprise SSD market is just heating up, and the top three suppliers will face significant challenge in maintaining their dominance. The fast maturation of 3D-NAND manufacturing goes together with SSD suppliers’ consensus that they need to tap into the demand in the enterprise market. 

Therefore, smaller brands and later market entrants are highly motivated to catch up and put pressure on the leaders.

From the aspect of memory architectures and product offerings, Intel during this year’s first half will be shipping mostly enterprise-grade SSDs using 3D-NAND MLC chips. As for the more cost-competitive enterprise products using 3D-NAND TLC chips, Intel will formally release them at the beginning of this third quarter.

Samsung, which has been edging close to Intel in the market share ranking, already has more than 80% of its enterprise-grade SSD shipments comprised of products using 3D-NAND TLC chips. With regard to other SSD suppliers, only Micron has started to ship enterprise-grade 3D-NAND SSDs. 

The rest of the competitors are expected to still mainly offer 2D-NAND products for this year. In terms of the overall market share, DRAMeXchange projects that 3D-NAND products will account for over 50% of the enterprise-grade SSDs shipped worldwide this year.

2015 Solid State Drive (SSD) market share: Samsung 41%, Intel 16%, SanDisk 10%

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to have a more than 40 percent share in the global solid state drive (SSD) market, which is considered the general trend in personal computer markets including notebook computers and servers, this year.

According to market researchers IHS and DRAMeXchange on Nov. 29, Samsung's SSD market share will rank first this year with 41 percent, following Intel Corp. with 16 percent, SanDisk Corp. with 10 percent, Micron Technology Inc. with 7 percent and Toshiba with 6 percent.

In 2014, Samsung's share stood at 34 percent with Intel and SanDisk sharing 17 percent and 16 percent of the market, respectively. The estimate said Samsung will see an increase by 7 percent point, while Intel and SanDisk will show a decrease by 1 percent point and 6 percent point, respectively. Samsung’s market share is almost four times larger than its rival SanDisk.

Since SSD uses NAND flash memory, it is four times faster in reading and writing speeds. This trait considerably reduces booting time for users and it is steadily replacing hard disk drives on the market. But, it is hard to make it high capacity and more expensive than traditional memory storage.

After the mass production of 3-D V-NAND, however, the landscape has changed. The data from IHS shows the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of NAND flash memory from 2014 to 2019, which shows 3-D V-NAND growing a whopping 211 percent, overwhelmingly surpassing multi-level cell (MLC) and triple-level cell (TLC) NAND.

Also, 3-D V-NAND for general customers is expected to account for 60 percent in the market in 2018.

Samsung has become the first in the world to mass produce 3-D V-NAND and other competitors are in pursuit. Industry insiders said that SanDisk, which is indirectly controlled by China’s Tsinghua Unigroup through Western Digital, has started to use 3-D NAND in its SSD products, but it has not been able to reduce the technology gap with the South Korean tech giant yet.

DRAMeXchange said in the market view report, “Considering the SSD manufacturing strategy, Samsung, which has the strength in the 3-D NAND sector, can make full use of its price competitiveness. However, SanDisk is rapidly chasing Samsung by operating its own TLC SSD line.”

Samsung seals a "billion dollars" deal with Apple for its SSD as wells as for the A9 chip.

Samsung Electronics struck another major chip deal with Apple with an estimated monetary value of "billions of dollars," helping Samsung further strengthen its chip business.

The latest agreement is calling for Samsung Electronics to sell its latest solid state drive (SSD) storage devices using its V-NAND technology to Apple's new range of ultra-slim and high-end notebook models, two people directly involved with the deal told The Korea Times, Friday.

"Samsung Electronics recently agreed with Apple to provide SSDs using its latest three-dimensional (3D) V-NAND tech. The deal is estimated to be worth a "few billion dollars," said one of the people.

Samsung's chip factory in Xian, China, will handle the production.

While Samsung will start providing Apple with entire chunks of the requested SSD products, the shipment volume, however, is subject to change according to situations, he said.

The deal is the third of its kind and Samsung will be responsible for at least half of the production of mobile DRAM chips to be used in upcoming iPhones.

Apple has also enlisted Samsung to handle 80 percent of the production of the A9 chipset to power new iPhones, pushing Taiwan's TSMC back to the secondary position in the highly profitable mobile application chip business.

"Samsung's SSD products with 3D V-NAND technology offer a significant performance boost in performance and endurance as compared to its predecessors, making them ideal for use in high-end notebooks. Samsung is the only company to mass produce the products currently," said the other people.

Unlike DRAM chips, SSD is based on NAND flash technology. The 3D NAND is an upgraded NAND flash technology. NAND chips are used to store data inside all digital devices from smartphones to TVs, even after the products are switched off.

Samsung Electronics' spokesman in Seoul declined to confirm the agreement as it doesn't comment on client-related issues.

Conventional hard disk drives (HDD) are rapidly being replaced by SSD as Samsung, which is the world's top memory supplier, is heavily promoting the sale of SSD products.

"Client SSD attach rates in notebooks, including ultrabooks, were up significantly last year and we see further growth ahead. We expect hybrid HDDs and SSDs to capture an increasing share of storage units in PCs," said Bernstein Research's senior analyst Mark C. Newman in a recent report.

The people said Samsung's 3D-NAND SSD storage technology makes it more suitable for general consumer application in key devices such as notebooks and gaming PCs.

The agreement comes a few days after Samsung Electronics' memory chip division head Kim Ki-nam told local reporters that the first quarter will also be good in terms of profits.

Its chip business reported 2.7 trillion won in operating profit last year, accounting for 51 percent out of total operating profit that Samsung Electronics earned.

Samsung's logic-chip business, which manages processors, has returned to the black since early this month. Analysts say the division will report about 1 trillion won operating profit this year, while the company's memory chip business is expected to get more than 12 trillion won in profits, helping the semiconductor division see a record in annual profits.

Toshiba announced 3 new SSD enterprise models

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Toshiba announced 3 new SSD enterprise models.

They bill the three lines as "High Performance," "Value," and "Read-Intensive/Boot Server."

"As SSDs continue to broaden their reach into enterprise applications, from web servers to data centers, our customers are looking for a broad set of SSD solutions," said Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing at Toshiba's Storage Products Business Unit. "Today's announcement further demonstrates how Toshiba is providing our partners with the ability to deliver the best storage solutions for every enterprise need."

All of the drives announced today will begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2012. If you're a business looking to upgrade your servers with SSDs, these new drives by Toshiba may be just the thing. Description chart below: (Pls click/tap on the two images to enlarge the view)

External SSD Flash Drive USB 3.0 Iomega announced.

Iomega External SSD Flash Drive USB 3.0 Announced

Iomega has announced the External SSD Flash Drive, featuring USB 3.0 and a 1.8" SSD available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities. 

The gunmetal aluminum enclosure measures 4.1" x 2.7" x .35" and weighs just four ounces. The enclosure offers physical protection for the SSD and data inside, designed to withstand falls of up to 10 feet with no adverse effects. 

The drives also feature 256-bit hardware encryption, v.Clone drive cloning software, QuikProtect backup software, one year subscription to Trend Micro's security bundle, and three year warranty. 

Availability

The new Iomega External SSD Flash Drive USB 3.0 will be available in early November in three capacities: 64GB for $229.00, 128GB for $399.00, and 256GB for $749.00.