Kingston Digital Leads Channel SSD Shipments in 2021

[btarunr]

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced TrendForce has named it as the number one third-party supplier of SSDs in the channel for all of 2021. According to TrendForce, Kingston accounted for a massive 26 percent of the 127 million units shipped in 2021.

Although the pandemic continued to disrupt the supply of SSD related components in 2021, shipments through global distribution channels saw an annual growth rate of 11%. While production demand increased, shipment volume was affected when wafer supply was too limited to meet order lead time. In response, Kingston adopted a limited supply strategy as product prices rose. These findings show through Kingston's global strategy for sourcing components, the company was well ahead of its competitors considering a global pandemic and chip shortage. The results reinforced Kingston as the clear leader in SSD production, as the second-place supplier accounted for only 8 percent of the total channel market. As a category, third-party suppliers (non-semiconductor) SSD makers accounted for 58% of the total shipments in 2021.



Growing demand for gaming SSDs with PCIe 4.0 NVMe continues to define the market landscape pushing module houses to steadily shift from SATA to PCIe. TrendForce predicts providing upgrades will likely enhance brand recognition and continue to boost shipments. In 2021, Kingston added two PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs to its portfolio with the addition of KC3000 and Kingston FURY Renegade SSD. The high-performance drives joined Kingston's family of client SSDs to enable those who demand speed and reliability to handle intensive games and application workloads on desktops and laptop PCs. According to TrendForce, price and the ability to provide comprehensive global production and sales services will be an important factor in continuing to increase PCIe SSD shipments in the future.

Kingston Technology's presence in the market is widely due to its strong relationships with customers and channel partners worldwide. As the ongoing health crisis swept through the world and businesses moved fast to adapt, Kingston continued to offer top-tier sales support and access to in-house product experts and engineers who embody the "Kingston Is With You" working attitude that has led to over three successful decades of reliability and support for customers. Kingston's #1 rank in the SSD market is no surprise when the same approach in the DRAM division has led the company to be the largest third-party memory module supplier for the 19th consecutive year.

"It's an honor to achieve this top ranking as Kingston celebrates its 35 year anniversary," said Keith Schimmenti, SSD business manager, Kingston. "From the beginning, Kingston's focus and core sales strength has been with our customers and channel partners worldwide. Together, these successful relationships have helped our SSD business grow rapidly. The latest results from TrendForce help validate these efforts, so we certainly share this success with them."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Denver]

Isn't it strange that Samsung is not even on the list, even though it is the brand with the best SSDs?

 

[ADB1979]

I assume that this is "Global sales" as I haven't even heard of 4 of the brands on this list, and I quite often have a look at the cheapest SSD's on eBay just to get an idea of price trends, most likely cheap and nasty crap that I would never consider buying.!

 

[cvaldes]

Isn't it strange that Samsung is not even on the list, even though it is the brand with the best SSDs?

I think the term "Branded SSD Module Makers" means companies who assemble m.2 drives using someone else's parts.

Samsung manufactures their own NAND flash memory as does Western Digital and SK Hynix so they would be considered first-party memory module suppliers thus not part of this survey.

My guess is that some of these unfamiliar names put their products into Chinese OEM assembled computers (both PCs and servers) and thus might not be encountered by typical tech forum participants. That is, they aren't retail focused products.

 

[Blaazen]

Isn't it strange that Samsung is not even on the list, even though it is the brand with the best SSDs?

There are listed third-party suppliers only (non-semiconductor companies). That's why there isn't Samsung, WD, Kioxia, Micron or SK Hynix.

 

[Gungar]

There are listed third-party suppliers only (non-semiconductor companies). That's why there isn't Samsung, WD, Kioxia, Micron or SK Hynix.

One more useless statistic then...

 

[Readlight]

No one buy Samsung.

 

[sephiroth117]

I'm in the process of building a new PC.
Just bought Kingston fury DDR5 6000Mhz CL32, at a much lower price than nearly all competitors.
And I bought a renegade fury nvme SSD because it had a great price and excellent performance.

I like this brand they have sub-brands for all price tiers and never had issues quality-wise. Their price are interesting and they have great performance, what's not to like ?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah adata 2nd from the top instead of the bottom you know the results are crap

 

[cvaldes]

I'm in the process of building a new PC.
Just bought Kingston fury DDR5 6000Mhz CL32, at a much lower price than nearly all competitors.
And I bought a renegade fury nvme SSD because it had a great price and excellent performance.

I like this brand they have sub-brands for all price tiers and never had issues quality-wise. Their price are interesting and they have great performance, what's not to like ?

If their warranty coverage is comparable, these third-party branded companies should definitely be considered.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Isn't it strange that Samsung is not even on the list, even though it is the brand with the best SSDs?

It's easy to understand why, if you read the original TrendForce press release.
It's about shipments through the distribution channel of "module houses' own in-house brands".
There was a reason why I didn't bother posting this yesterday, as we'd alreay covered it.

SSD Shipments Through Global Distribution Channels Reached 127 Million Units in 2021, Up 11% YoY

Affected by tight wafer supply, lead time for SSD controller IC and PMIC components was prolonged to 32 weeks in 2021. All controller IC suppliers generally give priority to supplying NAND Flash manufacturers, so production at module factories could not meet SSD demand in the retail market...

www.techpowerup.com

I assume that this is "Global sales" as I haven't even heard of 4 of the brands on this list, and I quite often have a look at the cheapest SSD's on eBay just to get an idea of price trends, most likely cheap and nasty crap that I would never consider buying.!

See above.

 

[ADB1979]

It's easy to understand why, if you read the original TrendForce press release.
It's about shipments through the distribution channel of "module houses' own in-house brands".
There was a reason why I didn't bother posting this yesterday, as we'd alreay covered it.

See above.

Thanks, I saw the other posts earlier but couldn't reply, all makes sense now.

 

[sLowEnd]

Interesting that Transcend is so big worldwide. Here in Canada, they're a brand only one chain store I know of carries (London Drugs), and even then it's just a bunch of low end stuff like cheap USB drives and basic RAM.