Flash sales will grow 119% to $10 billion in 2000, says researcher
(03/22/00, 08:18:46 AM EDT)
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- After growing 83% in 1999, flash memory revenues are expected to more than double to nearly $10 billion in 2000, predicted IC Insights Inc. here.
Explosive growth in nonvolatile flash memory shipments is being driven by wireless communications and a range of consumer products, such as digital cameras, MP3 audio players and set-top boxes, said the research firm. Flash memory revenues will grow 119% to $9.97 billion this year compared to $4.56 billion in 1999, said IC Insights. The flash market was $2.49 billion in 1998.
The research firm predicts that average selling prices for flash chip will continue to climb in the next three years. ASPs were at $3.74 for flash in 1999, but in 2000, average selling prices will jump to $5.25 partly due to shortages of production capacity. Average selling prices will then climb to $5.25 in 2000, $5.79 in 2001, and $6.04 in 2002 before leveling off in 2003 at $5.93, said IC Insights.
Worldwide unit shipments of flash memories will grow 56% to 1.9 billion chips in 2000 from 1.22 billion in 1999, according to the market researcher. In 2001, flash shipments will grow 26% to 2.39 billion devices, predicted IC Insights.
Not only will flash become the industry's second largest memory segment in 2000, passing SRAMs and trailing only DRAMs, but it will also account for 21% of the total memory market this year, said the research firm. In 1999, flash accounted for 14% of the memories sold.
The research firm noted that cellular phones will consume 430 million flash chips in 2000. In addition, the amount of flash memory in each phone is growing substantially. By 2002, the average cell phones will have 64 megabit of flash vs. just 4 Mbits in 1998. |
