Smartphones drive growing NAND flash consumption
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Mobile phones will replace memory cards as the largest consumer of flash memory in 2013, according to IHS iSuppli.
The market researcher says solid state storage will also make greater use of flash as demand grows, relegating memory cards to third place in the market.
In its latest market brief, IHS predicts mobile phones will consume 24.6% of all bits shipped this year, followed by SSDs at 23.3% and memory cards at 19.7%. These applications, along with USB drives, tablet pcs and MP3 players, will account for 93.2% of flash memory consumption.
With growing demand, IHS believes NAND flash revenues will reach the record level of $22billion in 2013, up from $20bn in 2012.
"The mobile handset market is demanding more and more memory – particularly flash," said Ryan Chien, IHS' memory and storage analyst. "Indeed, the shift in flash demand is reflective of a widespread transition in technology markets to focus more on mobile platforms like smartphones."
