Local manufacturers are gearing up to produce flash cards in anticipation of a worldwide increase in demand.
Research by the Semiconductor Industry Association indicates the world flash memory market will grow to $12.1 billion in 2004, and another 11% to $13.5 billion in 2005.
Sales statistics from the world`s major memory manufacturers like Samsung also indicate that flash memory is showing the biggest market growth for semiconductor products.
Flash memory products are most commonly found in communications and digital photography applications in the consumer market. "Flash will become the next platform for all the devices around us," says Bruce Murphy, Kalliba Technologies memory brand manager. "Flash is everywhere."
Murphy says Kalliba, a Johannesburg-based memory manufacturing division of Axiz, is gearing up to assemble flash memory cards. "We`re expecting flash memory will become more available to users as worldwide production increases and prices fall."
Axiz plans to manufacture flash memory cards to meet future local demand, with worldwide demand anticipated by manufacturers including Samsung, Intel, AMD, Fujitsu and Toshiba.
"All these companies have made huge investments in research and development," says Murphy. "They all expect a large market opportunity with massive potential for growth in demand for flash cards and USB flash."
There are also indications that demand for multimedia flash cards is set to grow, but Murphy says this will not be noticed much in the local market, where fewer devices using that kind of memory are available.
"Axiz expects local growth to be in secure digital flash memory, Sony memory sticks, and compact flash memory," says Murphy. "Those are the areas we plan to concentrate on and manufacture locally."
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