The explosion of products and multimedia services in the consumer and mobile wireless space will fuel the demand for large amounts of innovative memory solutions.
For memory suppliers like Samsung, the personal computer and server markets still present large opportunities, albeit slower-growing than those offered by consumer and mobile wireless products. Unlike the desktop world, where high-power, expensive processors became synonymous with computing, the consumer domain — PDAs, cell phones, pocket PCs, digital cameras and MP3 players, for example — demands cost-effective memory-centric solutions. When contrasted with their processor-centric counterparts in the PC domain, memory-centric designs will pave the way for cost-effective and power-efficient consumer electronic products.
The DRAM requirements of digital TVs, DVD recorders, set-top boxes (STBs), digital cameras, intelligent displays, home servers and wireless handsets, are expected to grow tenfold over the next three years. A recent STB study by Semico Research pegged the total DRAM bit density per system to grow from 32 Mbytes today to 312 Mbytes in 2006.
In mobile wireless, innovative memory solutions that combine NAND, Mobile DRAM and SRAM in one package are enjoying wide acceptance.
NAND flash technology has experienced phenomenal growth since 2001. In the PC domain, unit shipments of small USB flash drives — portable storage devices based on NAND flash — are starting to experience explosive growth. In the wireless handset and digital camera markets, embedded NAND flash bit-density growth per product is expected to expand tenfold and fivefold respectively, by 2006. This year Verizon plans to launch a Samsung phone, which provides viewing of up to 30 minutes of video and live TV for a fixed monthly fee.
The consumer electronics gold rush will usher in a plethora of new devices and create diverse opportunities for the semiconductor industry. Although it will be some time before memory bit consumption of consumer electronic devices approaches that of the PC and server markets, semiconductor chip vendors not paying attention to the innovation unfolding in the consumer space will miss out on a huge opportunity. In summary, we are cautiously optimistic about growth in the overall semiconductor market and we agree with recent revisions by the Semiconductor Industry Association, which forecast growth at 10.1 percent this year and 16.8 percent in 2004.
