Kingston Leads Channel SSD Shipments in 2021

Kingston Technology, a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced TrendForce has named it as the number one third-party supplier of SSDs in the channel for all of 2021. According to TrendForce, Kingston accounted for a massive 26 percent of the 127 million units shipped in 2021.

Although the pandemic continued to disrupt the supply of SSD related components in 2021, shipments through global distribution channels saw an annual growth rate of 11%. While production demand increased, shipment volume was affected when wafer supply was too limited to meet order lead time. In response, Kingston adopted a flexible supply strategy along with global sourcing. The company was well ahead of its competitors considering a global pandemic and chip shortage. The results reinforced Kingston as the clear leader in SSD production, as the second-place supplier accounted for only 8 percent of the total channel market.

Growing demand for gaming SSDs with PCIe 4.0 NVMe continues to define the market landscape pushing module houses to steadily shift from SATA to PCIe. TrendForce predicts providing upgrades will likely enhance brand recognition and continue to boost shipments. In 2021, Kingston added two PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs to its portfolio with the addition of KC3000 and Kingston FURY Renegade SSD. The high-performance drives joined Kingston’s family of client SSDs to enable those who demand speed and reliability to handle intensive games and application workloads on desktops and laptop PCs. According to TrendForce, price and the ability to provide comprehensive global production and sales services will be an important factor in continuing to increase PCIe SSD shipments in the future.

“It’s an honor to achieve this top ranking as Kingston celebrates its 35-year anniversary”, said Kingston. “From the beginning, Kingston’s focus and core sales strength has been with our customers and channel partners worldwide as we embody the ‘Kingston Is With You’ working attitude. Together, these successful relationships have helped our SSD business grow rapidly and the same approach in the DRAM division has led the company to be the largest third-party memory module supplier for the 19th consecutive year.”