Kingston and other SSD suppliers see bounce in 2Q

Global solid-state drive (SSD) shipments grew by 18 percentage points in the second quarter of 2019 on greater client system demand, according to IHS Markit Technology, part of Informa Tech.

The surge came as a relief after a weak first quarter in which shipments declined by 8%. SSD shipments rose nearly 10% to $57.9 billion in the second quarter, representing an 18-percentage point difference.

Some SSDs are used in mobile devices and desktop PCs, and that client segment was the major cause of the turnaround, IHS said. They increased by nearly 12% over the first quarter.

SSDs are in demand for client systems largely because of falling prices, according to James Zhao, principal analyst. The global average selling price for client SSDs declined by 6.7% in the second quarter, the sixth consecutive quarter of decline. SSDs for the enterprise market grew by only 1.9%.

Because of an overall SSD average selling price decline of 9.7%, SSD revenues grew by just 1%.

Kingston, a third-party SSD supplier, saw SSD shipments rise by 23% compared to the first quarter. That performance pushed Kingston to third place in the market for the first time in three years. The company has also had six straight quarters of double- digit revenue growth.

Samsung was the top company in shipments, with about 28% of the market, followed by Lite-On, with about 20% and Kingston at about 12%.

Intel had the number 2 spot in SSD revenue share. It shipped 4 million SSDs in the quarter, an improvement of 17.5% over the first quarter.

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