Global SSD Sales To Soar 60% This Year

2014 is a good year for SSD manufacturers, SSD sales are expected to rise a staggering 60% compared to 2013. The main reason for the significant rise in sales is the declining NAND flash prices, and the increasing uptake of SSD storage in new computing form factors like Ultrabooks, convertible tablets and Chromebooks. According to Digitimes the mainstream capacity has also changed from 60GB in 2012, to 120/240GB in 2013 to 240GB in 2014. The roll out of 480GB drives is expected to gain huge traction in late 2014 and 2015.

The prices of 1TB SSDs this year are comparable to the prices of 480/512GB SSDs of 2013. The advent of TLC NAND flash is helping to drive prices down as well as new and improved SSD controller chips from Marvell, JMicron and SandForce. Finally the addition of M.2 on Intel’s 9 Series motherboards is also expected to further drive SSD sales higher and Digitimes claim the M.2 form factor has the potential to replace the 2.5″ SSD, although I think that claim might be a little adventurous and detached from reality: the M.2 form factor lacks the scalability of the 2.5″ SATA drive.

Source: Digitimes

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