India consumer storage flash memory market declines 17% in 4Q: CMR

According to a new report by research firm CMR, the overall Indian consumer storage flash memory market which includes micro SD cards, SD cards, and flash drives declined 17 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 as compared to the third quarter in terms of shipment.

However, on YoY comparison, the market recorded a 7 percent growth, in terms of units shipped.

Micro SD and Pendrive categories witnessed 15 percent and 23 percent decline respectively in terms of units shipped in 4Q CY2017. Alternatively, SD Cards recorded huge 83 percent growth predominantly because of the wedding season in 4Q CY2017, the report said.

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

In 2017, micro SD cards, Flash Drive, and SD card categories added around 391 PB (Petabytes), 418 PB (Petabytes) and 31 PB (Petabytes) respectively accumulated 840 Petabytes of memory in the fourth quarter, the report further added.

CMR pointed out that SanDisk continued to be the most favored vendor and contributed 50 percent market share in terms of units shipped. However, the vendor shipments witnessed 18 percent decline as compared to the last quarter. Sony and Strontium were other leading players. These top three players collectively made 65 percent contribution to the overall consumer storage flash memory market.

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In micro SD segment, SanDisk remained the top contributor with 37 percent market share in the quarter, however, it witnessed 17 percent decline when compared to the last quarter. Strontium maintained its second position and Samsung was at the third spot in the fourth quarter.

"Heavy memory consuming apps for various entertainment activities in the smartphones, will keep the demand for Micro SD cards in the near future. However, growing trend of large internal memory smartphones will be a hindrance which will be offset by growth of entry-level budget smartphones," Sinha concluded.