Universal Flash Storage Market

Market Overview

The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) has brought forth an enormous potential for the players in the UFS market as the markets for security devices and smart drones are significantly rising. This equipment heavily relies on micro SD for video storage. Therefore, demand for enhanced hardware functionality and faster networks is expected to play a pivotal role in the next-generation of high-performance mobile storage market adoption. With the emergence of new applications, the installed base of IoT will increase, leading to greater demand for high storage memory devices, creating growth avenues for the UFS market.

The global automotive electronics market is anticipated to register the fastest growth during the forecast period, owing to the significantly growing EV and hybrid automobile industry, which has augmented the demand for a tremendous amount of data processing solutions and storage in automobiles. The advent of connected cars and technological advancements has led automakers to focus on adopting advanced memory solutions to address the growing needs of the consumers.

The global universal flash storage market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2 % during the forecast period, 2023–2031.

Market Dynamics

Availability of Low-Cost Labor is Driving Market Growth

Labor rates are generated according to service or urgency levels of the customer request. Labor costs can be classified into variable labor costs, fixed labor costs, direct labor costs, and indirect labor costs. Besides, costs can be categorized as direct and indirect. Direct costs can be traced to a specific product, such as direct labor and material costs. Indirect costs cannot be traced to a specific product but are still required for a production such as factory expenses, product design and engineering costs, general and administrative costs, and cost of sales. The average labor rate per employee in the global electronics sector is about USD 3,000 per year. The availability of low-cost labor in economically developing regions is attracting global electronic manufacturers. Taiwan represents 30% of the value-added labor costs while China and India represent 23% and 21%, respectively. According to a study published by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), in 2014, the average manufacturing labor cost per hour in India was USD 0.92 as compared to USD 3.52 in China.

Market Restraint: Lack of Training Centers to Produce a Skilled Workforce

Manufacturing of flash storage memory hardware demands delicate handling and process adherence during the manufacturing process. With changing technology, the labor personnel needs to be trained continuously. According to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the incremental human resource requirement in the electronics and IT hardware sector will be 8.9 million by 2022. Lack of trainingcenters and strict labor laws, including restrictions on overtime work, employee headcount, and work timings for women employees, is expected to pose a challenge. In addition to this, the rapidly emerging robotics sector is significantly taking over workplaces owing to benefits such as constant, high-speed production, and no breaks. Within the next decade, low-skilled jobs in poor local economies have a greater chance of robotics taking over their jobs to reduce labor costs more so with COVID-19 taking its toll on the global economy.

Technological Advancements and Extensive Adoption of Digital Solutions

Many industry players in the flash storage market are implementing lean programs as a traditional cost-control approach to improve existing labor efficiency. Adoption of advanced digital solutions, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality, advanced analytics, automation, and 3-D printing, improve indirect labor costs such as technicians, engineers, back-office staff, and others. Hardware manufacturers find it difficult to quantify indirect labor costs than direct costs. This requires analysis of the purpose, end products, and activities (PEA) of indirect employees. Semiconductor companies can recalibrate the workload and ensure that employees focus on tasks that truly add value. Digital solutions can ensure greater gains. Semiconductor companies that have successfully followed the PEA approach have reduced their indirect labor costs by 20–30% across all functions.

Segmental Analysis

Wide Usage of 32 GB Variant

The 32 GB segment is expected to govern a considerable market share owing to its usage in smartphones and laptops.Many manufacturers such as Samsung, Micron have launched 32 GB variants that are being installed in numerous devices.The 64 GB segment is also used for laptops and mobile phones but is usually used for some higher versions or are launched separately. This storage can be used for smartphones that have a 32 GB phone chipset although after the installation of this chipset the smartphones automatically shift to the upper tier of smartphones due to their additional storage system. Increasing preference for customers for more storage space in their phones can provide growth opportunities for this segment.

With the inception of UFS 3.0, the 128 GB segment is anticipated to emerge as one of the most prominent segments as most of the manufacturers will seek such storage drives as these are the most commonly utilized in their products. After the development of UFS 3.0, 128 GB UFS drives are anticipated to be installed in the majority of the middle range smartphone, tablets, and laptops.

Automotive Electronics Segment to Register a Significant Growth Rate

Automotive UFS features several functions well-suited to the requirements of automotive applications including refresh, thermal control, and extended diagnosis. The refresh function can be used to refresh data stored in UFS and helps extend the data lifespan. All these advantages are expected to attract automotive manufacturers and end-users towards UFS products.For Instance, Micron Technology, Inc. introduced its new UFS 2.1 managed NAND products for automotive applications. The new portfolio addresses the need for fast system start-up and higher data bandwidth for in-vehicle infotainment systems and instrument clusters to enhance the driver experience. Digital Camera usage has seen a tremendous increase over the past few decades.

The growing popularity of professional photography may have emerged as one of the most prominent reasons behind this development. Although many manufactures have also made some milestone development in their products and launched technologically advanced products compelling the professional photographers to opt for the advanced product.Increased quality of the photos has subsequently increased the size of the image and space required to save and process these images. Use of UFS as a storage medium is intensifying the deployment of UFS in this segment.

Impact of covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted various industry verticals for the entire first half of 2020 and is continuing to have its impact on the rest of the year as well. The industries have been shut down and workers sent home, resulting in halted production almost for the entire year. However, there has been a constantly emerging demand for electronic devices with faster performance as well as developed responsiveness that is considered to be one of the significant factors for the growth of the universal flash storage market across the globe. The advancement in technology has a considerable potential to meet the mounting scalable and growing data transmission requirement. The rising demand for a high-performance interface explicitly used for mobile systems and computing is anticipated to create lucrative opportunities for the universal flash storage market in the post-COVID-19 era.

Regional Analysis

Burgeoning Demand for Electronic Devices in Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific Universal Flash Storage Market is expected to witness growth due to the growing demand for electronic devices that have superior performance, demand for wearable electronics, and rapid adoption of high-speed data transfer technologies among the younger masses. Japan and South Korea are some of the developed semiconductor and electronics marketplaces in the APAC region. Universal flash storage is foreseen to change the automotive electronics landscape. Rising investments in R&D by emerging nations such as India and China, along with the contribution of Southeast Asian nations, are expected to boost the market economy in the forthcoming years.

South America’s Demand for Connectivity and Mass Data Storage

Growing demand for connectivity, mass storage of data, and multithreaded programming are collectively boosting the adoption of the universal flash storage market in South America. Implementation of electronic components in the automobile sector, gaming consoles, high-resolution displays, and laptops are boosting the demand for the embedded universal flash storage configuration. The penetration of electronic devices has risen the need for fast data transfer technology, which is expected to contribute to the growth of the market. Universal flash storage external cards help in power-efficient data transport, better performance levels, and doubling throughput via command queuing. Rising awareness among the key startups in Brazil, Chile, and Peru and common masses is driving the rapid growth of the UFS market in this region.

As demands for high-resolution movie playback, high-resolution 3D gaming and high-end DSLR camera for enhanced multimedia is growing among the consumers, the development of innovative memory solutions has become of utmost priority. Thus the industry participants are expected to adopt power-efficient data transport and high-performance electronic devices to achieve efficiency.

Recent Developments

• In October 2016, California-based Cadence Design Systems, Inc., launched its 10 new Verification IP solutions, including UFS 2.1, to improve data security through the use of inline cryptography between UFS storage device and the SoC.

Universal Flash Storage Market Segmentation

By Type

• 32 GB
• 64 GB
• 128 GB
• 256 GB
• 512 GB

By Application

• Automotive Electronics
• Digital Cameras
• Gaming Consoles
• High-Resolution Displays
• Laptops
• Smartphones

By Region

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• SAMEA