"SSD with Lowered Prices Surpasses HDD Shipments for the First Time Last Year"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] In the data storage device market used for PCs and other devices, the shipment volume of solid-state drives (SSD) surpassed that of hard disk drives (HDD) for the first time last year. As technological development accelerated, SSD prices dropped, leading to a significant increase in their use in PCs and gaming consoles.

On the 28th, Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, citing recent data from market research firm Techno System Research (TSR), reported that last year, the global shipment volume of SSDs reached 315 million units, surpassing HDDs (260 million units) for the first time. In terms of market value, SSDs also led with $27.9 billion (approximately 31.6 trillion KRW) last year, compared to HDDs at $20.2 billion.

Data storage devices have rapidly shifted from HDDs to SSDs since 2016. SSDs, equipped with multiple NAND flash chips, offer faster data input/output speeds than HDDs, are lighter, and occupy less space. However, previously, their higher price made them less competitive compared to HDDs. Nihon Keizai Shimbun stated, "Innovations in NAND flash technology, a core component of SSDs, have reduced costs. The average unit price of an SSD was $88 last year, down 30% over five years," adding, "SSD shipments are expected to continue surpassing HDDs after 2021."

The transition from HDDs to SSDs is expected to continue accelerating. Rob Crooke, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group, said at an event late last year, "HDDs have dominated in total capacity due to their low storage cost," but added, "We expect the price per GB of SSDs to undercut HDDs as early as 2022."

Companies like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are accelerating SSD technology development to meet growing demand such as increased data center usage. Samsung Electronics recently announced mass production of the industry's first data center SSD based on 6th generation V-NAND, the 'PM9A3 E1.S.' SK Hynix acquired Intel's NAND flash business last year to secure SSD technology and launched consumer SSDs domestically for the first time in nine years this January.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.