Kingston Technology has been ramping up its shipments of embedded memory devices to the smartphone sector in China, leveraging a shortage in the supply of comparable IC parts from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, according to industry sources.

　　Embedded multimedia cards (eMMCs) and embedded multi-chip package (eMCP) memory solutions are being deployed rapidly in smartphones as well as other mobile devices. With China's smartphone market booming, demand for such embedded memory solutions has risen significantly since 2013.

　　Major suppliers of smartphone embedded storage solutions are mainly chip vendors such as Samsung and SK Hynix, which have seen their supplies fall short of demand due to robust demand from China, the sources said. Dedicated memory module maker Kingston, which is also making inroads into the field, recently became a beneficiary of the current shortage of supplies from the chip firms, the sources pointed out.

　　In a January 2011 report, company co-founder John Tu indicated that Kingston's eMMC focus would be placed on popular smartphones and other portable electronics devices with an emphasis on building a customer portfolio in China. In addition to demand from China's white-box handset manufacturers, becoming a preferred backup embedded memory supplier of brand-name vendors could be regarded as another opportunity for Kingston to develop its embedded memory business, Tu said.

　　As the first dedicated module maker to enter the embedded memory territory dominated by leading chip firms, Kingston is partnering with controller IC supplier Phison Electronics for embedded devices compliant with the eMMC standard. Kingston uses NAND flash chips from Toshiba and mobile DRAM from Elpida to manufacture its eMMC solutions.