TAIPEI, TAIWAN: According to DRAMeXchange, the entire memory card and USB Flash drive (UFD) market in FY07 was valued at US$11.5bn. Among all major vendors, SanDisk lead in terms of sales at US$2.93bn, followed by consumer electronics giant Sony's US$1.73bn.

Kingston, the number-one DRAM module vendor, ranked third at US$1.13bn, while PNY, a leading US-based channel brand, took the fourth place at a sales amount of US$715mn. Taiwan-based Transcend successfully secured its top-five position with a sales amount of US$619mn.

DRAMeXchange analysts indicate that SanDisk, with the capacity backup from the Toshiba JV,recorded shipments of its microSD card soared by 128 percent YoY in FY07, generating an equivalent sales of US$1.4bn. It also achieved a good sales record (US$1bn) in SD and CF card markets, the two market segments that are mainly dominated by digital camera.

In the UFD market, SanDisk recorded a 54 percent YoY shipment growth, generating an equivalent sales amount of US$500mn. SanDisk successfully took the lead in both memory card and UFD markets in terms of sales in FY07.

The Japan-based Sony creates its proprietary memory card standard, Memory Stick, for its own-brand Cyber-shot cameras and Sony Ericsson handsets. Thanks to the leading roles that Sony hold in respective segments (Cyber-shot ranks second and SonyEricsson ranks as top five), it generated a sales amount of over US$1.7bn from both Memory Stick and UFD in FY07 on a relative high ASP than other memory card/UFD.

Kingston, the number-one DRAM module maker, has utilized its established global connections to foster its NAND Flash memory sales over recent years.

Note that its sales scale of over US$500mn in UFD market in FY07 has already allowed it to reach a level similar to SanDisk.

DRAMeXchange analysts indicate that being one of the top five memory card and UFD makers in FY07, Transcend was the only player from Taiwan.

Its year-long strategic deployment and channeling in branded sales allowed the synergy of brandname to start emerging since FY06.  This emergence is evident in its growing market share in Europe, India and China. By including its success sales record from Japan, it achieved a sales amount of US$619mn from memory card and UFD in FY07.

According to the memory card and UFD sales from the above vendors, SanDisk, Kingston and PNY are the three top players. Sony also takes a heavy role in the market, not only because of its proprietary memory card standard, but also its influential power in both digital camera and handset markets.

As for Taiwan vendors, DRAMeXchange analysts believe that their influence is set to grow further amid the aggressive deployments in emerging markets and channels over the next few years.