JOC Staff | Jan 23, 2013 9:24AM EST
A new generation of lower-cost and more appealing ultrabooks is expected to help cause global shipments of solid-state drives to more than double in 2013, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space Market Brief.
Worldwide SSD shipments are set to rise to 83 million units this year, up from 39 million in 2012, and will continue to rise to 239 million units in 2016, amounting to about 40 percent of the size of the hard-disk drive market, IHS iSuppli said.
SSDs can serve as an alternative to hard-disk drives in personal computers, storing data by using NAND flash memory semiconductors rather than by employing traditional rotating media.
“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,” Chien said.