In 2017, 3D NANDs such as Samsung, Toshiba / Western Digital, Micron, SK hynix, etc., were upgraded to 64-layer / 72-layer stacks. NAND flash capacity increased to 256Gb and 512Gb, doubling the capacity of 2D NAND Coupled with the continuous increase in 3D NAND output, NAND flash memory density reached 162 billion GB equivalent in 2017.
NAND Flash market demand growth momentum comes mainly from high-end smart phone capacity doubled and SSD data center, server market demand driven. 2017 Apple iPhone 8/8 Plus / X models only provide 64GB and 256GB capacity, according to 6: 4 ratio, the average capacity is up to 140GB, and Samsung Galaxy S8, Huawei P10 / Mate 10, OPPO, VIVO, etc. Flagship phones have 64GB and 128GB to play the main capacity, the global 1.49 billion market size of the smart phone is still an important application of NAND Flash market, coupled with the tablet, car, smart box and other market demand, 2017 eMMC, eMCP embedded are consumed 42% of NAND Flash products.
Followed by the SSD market, the data analysis, processing, and response speed requirements in data centers, servers and other fields are constantly increasing. The demand for SSDs is strong among Google, Facebook, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei. In the midst of the NAND Flash market out of stock, Samsung is delivering advanced 64-layer 3D NAND to high-margin, enterprise-class SSD customers with high data storage capacity, and Intel is addressing big data storage needs based on 32-layer 3D NAND and 3D Xpoint technology In 2017, the global enterprise SSD market shipped 22 million units, with an average capacity requirement of 1.5TB and a large NAND Flash capacity consumption.
In the consumer SSD market, the PC OEM market demand mainly focused on 240GB capacity as the retail SSDs rose more than 80% cumulatively since Q2 2016 price hikes, causing the market demand to shift from 120GB to 240GB. The overall SSD shipment driven by the increase, the number of SSD shipments in the consumer market in 2017 was 135 million units. Combined with the SSD demand in the industrial, financial and automotive sectors, global SSDs consumed 42% of NAND Flash capacity.
Outlook 2018, Samsung, Toshiba, SK Hynix and other 64-layer / 72 layer based on 3D NAND is promoting 256GB capacity UFS products in the high-end market applications, if Samsung, Huawei, VIVO, OPPO, follow up Apple's flagship model capacity upgrading to 256GB, the embedded product demand for NAND Flash capacity will be further expanded. With the increase of 64-layer / 72-layer 3D NAND capacity, it will help reduce SSD prices. In addition, driven by the PCIe trend, ChinaFlashMarket is expected SSDs will be popularized to higher capacity and 2018 SSD will be the largest NAND Flash market. |