Review: Leading Vendors In SSD Race

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Intel still dominates solid-state drive sales, but its lead is shrinking. According to researcher NPD’s annual report on SSD sales, the once-dominant SSD pioneer is losing ground to one veteran and one newcomer. Here’s a look at the 10 best-selling solid state drives of 2013 as reported by U.S. technology distributors and the NPD Group.

IBM came in at No. 10, with a 1.2 percent share of the overall market. And as slender as its slice of the SSD pie was last year, the company's share was down by more than 0.1 percent from 2012. Capturing just 1.7 percent of 2013 SSD sales was OCZ Storage Solutions, which is now a part of Toshiba. OCZ saw its market share drop from 7.5 percent in 2012, a loss of 5.8 percentage points from one year to the next. Seagate SSDs captured 1.7 percent of 2013 sales, placing it in a virtual tie with OCZ, which trailed by hundredths of a percent. With a statistically flat market share year-over-year, EMC sold about 2.8 percent of the SSDs in 2013 and in 2012. Despite a breadth of products that's about as extensive as it gets, 2013 SSD market share of memory giant Kingston Technology slipped in 2013 to 2.9 percent of total unit sales.

Hewlett-Packard more than doubled its SSD market share year over year. The company in 2012 commanded just 2.3 percent of the SSD market, according to NPD. But by 2013, its share had shot up 2.9 percent to a high of 5.2 percent of total sales. Crucial Technology SSDs dropped 3 full percentage points in market share from 2012 to 2013, yet still managed to remain in fourth place in total units purchased. Much of that was likely due to its aggressive pricing, which is among the lowest of any leading manufacturer.

Four of the year's 10 best-selling SSD products were made by Samsung, which took third place in overall unit sales in 2013. Amazingly, the company more than quadrupled its market share in a single year, growing from 4.4 percent in 2012 to 19.3 percent last year. In second place with 20.9 percent of the U.S. market is Sandisk, which more than doubled its 2012 market share of 8.7 percent. Intel is once again the No. 1 supplier of SSDs in the U.S. But its lead this year has slipped a good bit. Since 2012, the company has watched its lead in SSD units sales shrink from 52.7 percent to 31.6 percent in 2013.

PUBLISHED JUNE 25, 2014