Global eSSD Sales Stagnate in Q4 Last Year... Samsung Maintains No.1 Market Share

Samsung at 39.5%... SK Hynix Closes In at 31.3%

In the fourth quarter of last year, the global sales growth of enterprise solid-state drives (eSSD), a high-value-added NAND flash product, showed signs of slowing down. Samsung Electronics maintained its position as the market leader.

According to market research firm TrendForce on the 6th, eSSD demand in the fourth quarter of last year remained stable thanks to the launch of Nvidia's H-series products and continuous procurement by Chinese companies. However, due to the weak consumer electronics market, contract prices stagnated, resulting in sales remaining at levels similar to the previous quarter. Accordingly, the total eSSD sales of major memory suppliers in the fourth quarter amounted to $7.34 billion, a 0.5% decrease compared to the previous quarter.

SK Hynix's PCIe 5th generation SSD PCB01. Provided by SK Hynix

By company, Samsung Electronics held the top spot with sales of $2.9 billion and a market share of 39.5%. However, due to order processing delays and other factors, sales decreased by 9.4% compared to the previous quarter, and market share fell from 43.4%.

SK Hynix (including Solidigm) ranked second with sales of $2.3 billion, an 11.8% increase from the previous quarter. Its market share also rose from 27.9% to 31.3%, closing in on Samsung Electronics. SK Hynix is showing clear synergy effects from the integration of Solidigm, and with mass production of PCIe (high-speed input/output interface) 5th generation SSDs based on triple-level cell (TLC) NAND, its market share is expected to increase further.

Micron ranked third with sales of $1.17 billion, a 1.6% increase from the previous quarter, achieving a market share of 16%. Despite a slowdown in demand for 30-terabyte (TB) SSDs, it is evaluated to have delivered stable performance by continuously expanding its server customer base.