Market research firm In-Stat expects the NAND Flash market volume to more than triple from $5 billion in 2004 to $18 billion in 2009.

The vast majority of NAND chips are used today in memory cards or USB memory where most end customers are interested in two things - storage capacity and price, the high-tech research firm says. According to In-Stat, the heavy reliance on the add-on card market makes NAND Flash a consumer-driven product with price sensitivity.

"Understanding the NAND Flash marketing is all about maintaining a good grasp of the Flash card market and the applications driving its demand," said Frank Dickson, a senior director with In-Stat.

In-Stat believes digital cameras, USB memory, the growing digital music player market, as well as the promise of a large mobile phone market will continue to dominate the non-Flash card based demand, with USB memory being the largest of the group with revenues of a little over $2 billion in 2005. (THG)

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