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Micron Technology, a major supplier of NAND flash, reported their first fiscal quarter earnings Wednesday evening. While the results were somewhat inconsistent and below analysts’ expectations (DRAM sales are slow), the word of the day when it comes to flash memory is “growth”!
In the first quarter, Micron saw an approximately six percent increase in NAND sales. In addition, Micron has stated that even now, it’s actually seeing an increased demand for consumer SSDs.
This is in contrast to Intel’s statement that SSD sales have been largely stagnant since the HDD shortage began. Micron also mentioned growth in enterprise SSD sales, though this makes up a much smaller portion of their total solid state pie. The general trend is very encouraging, to say the least. Though Micron is only one of several companies that make up the flash industry, it’s fully expected that most major suppliers of flash memory will begin to see significant increases in NAND output as 2012 rolls on.
This is, of course, to be expected as proliferation of SSDs begins to increase in order to pick up the slack left by the magnetic storage industry, which is still reeling from the assault by mother nature. It’s also reasonable to expect that computer manufacturers will abandon mechanical drives in favor of SSDs, with systems seeing only a nominal increase in price, or none at all, forcing overall SSD costs even lower.
Indeed, Micron’s announcement simply confirms what many have been predicting for quite some time now. That’s perfectly fine, however, as most buyers would like nothing more than to see a perpetual fall in SSD prices, myself included. This is an example of supply and demand at it’s best. If the pattern proves to be a continual phenomenon, we may have a situation in which relatively cheap and exceedingly fast drives are being purchased by a lot of extraordinarily happy customers. Just writing that puts a smile on my face.
See press release on next page….
No doubt that Micron is a force to be reckoned with in the SSD market, given their semiconductor status. If you have the fab, half of the uphill climb is complete. Controller and firmware is the challenge. Micron was late to the SSD market, as compared to Intel, so their growth is relative to their entry point and sales.
Enterprise is a completely different animal. In order for Micron to penetrate this market, they will have to dedicate firmware resources to comply with the big computing boys’ requirements. In order for Micron (or any other semiconductor company) to invest in these resources, there will have to be (big) volume. Is there “big” volume in Enterprise today?
From several presentations that i have seen, one from the CEO of SanDisk at AIS 2011, Enterprise flash usage is pegged at 1% right now. Certainly a product that is gaining traction, but there is a huge divide there.