Reuters: Technology News: Samsung bets on storage devices as smartphone sales growth wanes

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Samsung bets on storage devices as smartphone sales growth wanes Jul 18th 2013, 05:54 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News SanDisk raises forecast as memory chip prices bounce back Wed, Jul 17 2013 Intel cuts 2013 revenue forecast as PC industry sags Wed, Jul 17 2013 UPDATE 2-ASML lifts sales forecast on demand for mobile devices Wed, Jul 17 2013 UPDATE 1-OCZ sees NAND flash memory shortage hitting 1st-qtr revenue Mon, Jul 15 2013 OCZ sees NAND flash memory shortage hitting 1st-qtr revenue Mon, Jul 15 2013 The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company's headquarters in Seoul July 6, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Lee Jae-Won By Miyoung Kim SEOUL | Thu Jul 18, 2013 1:54am EDT SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co on Thursday launched storage technology aimed at replacing computer hard disk drives as it targets the rapidly expanding memory devices market to offset slowing sales growth for smartphone memory chips. Samsung is the world's top maker of the NAND flash memory chips commonly used in smartphones and solid state drives, or SSDs, which are faster, lighter and consume less power than hard disk drives found in most personal computers. Global demand for SSDs is expected to grow by 75 percent this year to 78 million units, brokers Nomura said, while shipments of NAND chips for use in smartphones are expected to increase 41 percent, weakening from 44 percent last year and 58 percent in 2011, as smartphone sales growth starts to wane. SSDs are widely used in high-end ultra-thin laptops such as Apple's MacBook Air but hard disk drives remain PC maker's dominant choice because of the huge price difference. The 1 terabyte SSD Samsung launched costs $650 while a same-capacity hard disk drive by biggest manufacturer Western Digital Corp sells for less than $100. Some analysts, however, expect hard disk drive usage in PCs to fall below 50 percent by 2015 as SSD prices fall and hybrid solutions emerge. Chipmakers are also betting on SSDs to become a fresh earnings driver in the $24 billion flash memory market, which is currently booming thanks to strong demand for cut-price tablets and smartphones in China. Samsung is building a $7 billion chip plant in China, while Toshiba Corp and SK Hynix are also boosting production. SSDs are likely to account for nearly a quarter of total flash memory sales this year from 15 percent this year, according to Daewoo Securities, and this proportion is set to rise to 45 percent by 2015. Samsung accounts for around 40 percent of global NAND flash market and competes with Toshiba, Micron Technology and SK Hynix. In the SSD market, it competes with Toshiba, Sandisk and Intel. (Editing by Miral Fahmy) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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