SSD Market On Track For More Than Double Growth This Year

As more and more low-cost ultrabooks enter the market, the shipments of solid state drives could more than double in 2013. An IHS iSuppli Storage Space Market Brief suggests shipments of SSDs could rise to 83 million units this year, which is more than double the number of shipments in 2012.

By 2016, iSuppli expects shipments will continue to rise and could reach 239 million units. If this holds true, SSDs would hold about 40 percent of the hard disk drive market. These figures include SSDs for both the consumer and enterprise markets as well as cache SSDs. They do not include hybrid hard drives.

In addition to increased consumer interest in ultrabooks, lower prices for NAND flash memory have also increased the demand for SSDs since more PC manufacturers are now willing to install the once-costly SSDs in their computers. In the enterprise market, SSD use has also increased thanks to interest from major vendors as well as startups.

“The fate of the SSD business is closely tied to the market for Ultrabooks and other ultrathin PCs that use cache drives,” said Ryan Chien, analyst for memory and storage at IHS. “While SSD shipments rose by 124 percent last year, growth actually fell short of expectations because ultrabook sales faltered due to poor marketing, high prices and a lack of appealing features. However, if sales of the new generation of ultrabooks take off this year as expected, the SSD market is set for robust growth.”