It’s getting harder for new entrants to get a significant share of the solid state drive market away from well-known brands. As such, Kingston and Adata have been leading the retail shipment of SSDs for many years. However, after only a few years on the market, Gigabyte seems to have become one of the top 10 SSD retailers.
Despite shortages in controllers and power management ICs, shipments of SSDs through global distribution channels in 2021 will reach 127 million units, up 11% year-on-year, according to the company. trend force (opens in new tab)42% of these drives shipped were from companies that make 3D NAND memory (Kioxia, Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Western Digital). In contrast, the remaining 58% include companies purely focused on SSD assembly. TrendForce’s retail SSD ranking counts only “pure play” SSD manufacturers in the latter category.
Branding is important in retail. That’s why Kingston, Adata, Kimtigo, Lexar, and Transcend have long been included in TrendForce’s list of the top 10 manufacturers of SSDs sold inside retail stores or custom PCs. However, Kingston’s share will drop slightly to 26% in 2021. This is probably because there were more players dealing with the segment Kingston dealt with. Meanwhile, the other top three manufacturers are consolidating their positions, according to TrendForce. Lexar, which currently has nothing to do with Micron, is number four with a 6% share. Netac sits right below Lexar.
Meanwhile, after several drives in the best SSD list in just a few years in gaming, Gigabyte came in ninth with a 3% market share. Colorful, like Kimtigo, is mainly for China, with an even higher share of 4%. Finally, Powev is the new top 10 entrant he has a 4% share.
SSDs are relatively easy to manufacture and the market is growing, so there are hundreds of companies supplying solid state drives today. But with so many names, the competition is fierce as everyone is trying to offer the best price, best quality and best performance. Companies have an advantage over pure SSD houses because they own their own chips and know how they work. They know how to ensure consistent high performance of drives with memory.
Although it is difficult to compete with 3D NAND makers on price, some experts have been successful in producing high-speed drives. Companies like Corsair, G.Skill, Patriot, Sabrent and TeamGroup may not be on the top 10 list of the largest retail SSD makers by shipments. However, performance and quality he still serves a loyal customer base that demands only two things.
