|
|
|
COMPETITION IN FLASH MEMORY CARD MARKET BEGINS TO INTENSIFY
In June and July, a number of flash memory card announcements
pointed to renewed competition in this arena. The flash card market
is a subset of the larger flash chip market in that end products are
packaged cards intended to plug into a computer-based system.
A survey by market research firm In-Stat Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz. found
that worldwide flash card sales in 1995 reached $173.7 million, a 60%
growth over 1994, which saw $108.9 million in sales. The researcher
expects rapid market growth to continue and forecasts that worldwide
sales will hit $252.9 million this year and $1.25 billion by the year
2000. Flash card unit sales in 1994 were 582,000.
Connie Batchelder, In-Stat’s senior analyst for IC cards and modules
attributes the surge to significant price reduction of the cards and
the increase in new applications using the cards. Examples include new
digital cameras and handheld computers and personal digital assistants.
The PowerShot 600 digital camera from Canon Computer Systems Inc. in
Tokyo uses flash cards to store images. In place of conventional film,
the PowerShot 600 uses 1 Mbyte of internal memory to store up to 18
images. Up to 72 images can be contained on a 4-Mbyte flash card.
In-Stat found shipments of ATA-based flash cards versus linear flash
cards also expanded last year. For portable equipment, ATA is the mobile
equivalent of the industry-standard IDE desktop interface.
ATA cards have an intelligent controller on-board each card. SanDisk
Corp. is the major supplier of this type of card though other vendors
are supplying the compatible offerings. The card mimics the operation
of a rotating memory device, thus it can be integrated into a system
without extra hardware or software.
Linear flash cards, such as those sold by Intel, AMD and others mimic
the operation of solid-state memory. Thus, programs can be executed
directly from the cards, not possible with ATA cards. However, linear
flash cards have no on-board controller, thus a host system requires
software and FFS and FTL drivers to read and write to the cards.
In dollar shipments, ATA cards had a 36.9% share of the market in 1995
compared with 63.1% for linear cards. In Stat expects ATA card sales
to grow to 44.6% of the market this year and in the next three or four
years, ATA dollar card sales will surpass linear card sales.
In terms of competitive standing in the flash card market, In-Stat ranks
SanDisk first in its 1995 worldwide market share survey of removable
PC flash storage card sales. SanDisk, which also finished first in the
firm’s 1994 survey, had shipments of $55 million in 1995 giving
the company a 32% market share, up from 28% in 1994. Intel’s 23%
market share in 1994 slipped to 17% ($29 million in sales) in 1995.
<BACK
|
|
|
