Flash Card Market to Soar by 2002

Newly published research from International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that flash card shipments will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 69% during the forecast period of 1997-2002, resulting in over 40 million cards shipping in 2002.

"Driven by the surging digital camera market, the total flash card opportunity is expected to increase from $221 million in 1997 to well over $1 billion in 2002," said Christopher Dawe, research analyst with IDC's Semiconductor program. In addition to digital cameras, key drivers for growth in the flash card market include networking, smart hand-held and other consumer devices requiring removable memory.

While CompactFlash and SmartMedia represent the majority of unit shipments within the card market, IDC forecasts that CompactFlash will emerge as the predominant form factor solution due to established market share position and capability to reach higher capacity points. In 1997, unit shares for CompactFlash and SmartMedia were 59% and 21% of the total market respectively. The remainder of the market was comprised of the Miniature Card form factor and Type I, II, and III PC cards. IDC predicts that as CompactFlash steadily advances to be the industry standard, units shipped will climb to 78% of the market in 2002.

According to data contained in IDC's report, "Solid State Storage: Flash Card Market Forecast and Review, 1997-2002," worldwide cost per MB declines will help drive card unit growth. Research shows that there has been a 50% reduction in cost per MB within the flash card industry from 1997 to 1998. IDC believes the decrease will not be as dramatic going forward, however prices will still drop quickly, leveling out to less than $1 per MB by the year 2000. Other forecast figures included in the report show Average Card ASP projections by form factor, total MBs forecast for the card market and Average Card Capacity by Form Factor for the period 1997 through 2002.

Copies of this report (#B17748) may be purchased by contacting Cheryl Toffel at 1-800-343-4952, ext. 4389.