Flash sales to hit $17bn on new gadgets

The Flash market over the next six months will be strongly influenced by Apple's 8GB and 16GB iPods

The market for Flash memory will be worth more than $17bn next year, according to analysts in Korea, the world's main Flash production centre.

Sales will be driven by the launch of memory-hungry gadgets like Apple's 16GB iPod, a second generation of Microsoft's Ultra Mobile PC and music phones. 

The market for the most commonly used Flash memory type, Nand Flash, is growing some 27 per cent per annum, and is expected to reach $13.5bn this year and $17.1bn in 2007.

"Amid stabilising DRam prices, the Nand Flash memory market is recovering," said Michael Hoosik Min, an analyst at Korea Investment and Securities. 

"We recommend investors to focus on the second half of the year, the high season, and the market's growth rate until 2007."

Korea's Samsung Electronics dominates the market at 50 per cent in revenue terms, followed by Toshiba and Hynix with 17 per cent each. 

Media players and digital cameras each take up approximately one third of Flash production, according to data from IDC. Handsets and USB drives both account for approximately 10 per cent.