Indian consumer flash memory market shipment sees 17% drop

New Delhi : The overall India consumer storage flash memory market witnessed 17 per cent decline in the fourth quarter of 2017 as against the third quarter in terms of units shipped. However, on year-on-year (YoY) comparison, the market recorded seven per cent growth.

According to market researcher CyberMedia Research's "India Consumer Storage Flash Memory Quarterly Market Review" of the last quarter of 2017, the end of the festive season marked the decline of the overall market. 

Micro SD and pendrive categories witnessed 15 per cent and 23 per cent decline, respectively, in terms of units shipped. Alternatively, SD cards recorded 83 per cent growth predominantly because of the wedding season.

"Demand of superior quality photos by the customers during wedding season demands for high-end cameras and high-speed camera cards to store high-resolution images. This led to surge in camera card demand," Shipra Sinha, Analyst at CyberMedia Research, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Micro SD cards (391 Petabytes), flash drive (418 Petabytes) and SD card (31 Petabytes) accumulated a total of 840 Petabytes of memory in the quarter.

SanDisk continued to be the most favoured vendor and contributed 50 per cent market share. 

However, the vendor shipments witnessed 18 per cent decline as compared to the last quarter. Sony and Strontium were other leading players. These top three players collectively made 65 per cent contribution to overall consumer storage flash memory market.

SanDisk remained the top contributor with 37 per cent market share in Micro SD shipments. Strontium maintained its second position and Samsung was at the third spot.

When it came to flash drives, SanDisk again led the market with 63 per cent market share. Sony was at second position and Strontium captured the third spot in terms of unit shipments. 

Among the top ten flash drive models, SanDisk's Cruzer Blade (SDCZ50) and Ultra Dual Drive (SDDD3) were the most favoured models.

In terms of capacity, 16GB flash devices were the major contributor with 40 per cent market share. 

The 32GB capacity segment contributed 15 per cent of overall flash devices witnessing 39 per ent decline in terms of units shipped.

The 64GB capacity segment contributed four per cent of overall flash devices market recording three per cent sequential growth.