NOR Flash Memory Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

NOR Flash Memory Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The NOR Flash Memory Market size is estimated at USD 3.11 billion in 2023, and is expected to reach USD 4.02 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 5.30% during the forecast period (2023-2028).

Key Highlights

• The current semiconductor shortages and undersupply of other memory products, such as DRAM and NAND, have led to an increase in demand and the average selling price of NOR flash products since the pandemic. However, over the coming years, the ASP of NOR flash is expected to decline significantly due to growing stockpiles, which will impact demand.
• Furthermore, NOR flash memory remains useful for code storage and low-end embedded applications but is not a serious contender for high-capacity storage applications. In the automotive space, NOR products are used in infotainment systems, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and dashboard instrument clusters.
• The growing digitalization is driving demand for data logging requirements, artificial intelligence, and over-the-air updates, which are mainly incorporated by wearables. This demand for technology in wearables is driving the demand for the NOR flash market.
• Research and development costs are expected to increase with the growing end-user requirements for NOR flash memory. Vendors like Micron have invested USD 15 billion to construct a new fabrication facility for memory manufacturing in Boise, Idaho. The company is also planning to co-locate the new manufacturing fab with Micron's R&D center at the company's headquarters to enhance technology deployment and improve time to market with operational efficiency to cater to industries like automotive, data centers, and memory applications in artificial intelligence and 5G. This indicates the costly setup for research and development and the fabrication process and the challenges it presents.
• The COVID-19 pandemic helped top vendors expand their revenues and market presence in 2021. For instance, the top vendors, such as Macronix and Winbond, observed over 66% and 32% revenue growth, respectively, as part of their flash segment revenue growth.

NOR Flash Memory Market Trends

Growing Applications of IoT to Drive the Market

• One of the major applications of NOR Flash in the growing IoT market is True Wireless Stereo (TWS) hearable devices. As companies such as Apple, Samsung, Sony, Xiaomi, Huawei, and others have developed connections between smartphones and hearing devices, the need for improved acoustic features has increased, driving the demand for NOR Flash as more firmware needs to be stored in the NOR flashes of TWS hearables.
• Additionally, an article from Headphones Addict estimates that Apple generated USD 12.1 billion in revenue from sales of AirPods alone in 2022, which was more than Spotify, Twitter, and Shopify combined. This indicates the growing demand for TWS hearables and that each of Apple’s AirPods is estimated to have at least 2 NOR flashes, further driving demand in the IoT market.
• Furthermore, NOR flashes are being applied in IoT devices to reduce energy consumption and extend battery life. For example, Dialog Semiconductor announced the launch of the AT25EU family of SPI NOR Flash devices in April 2022 to lower power consumption, as devices take time to complete operations such as Erase and Program. According to the company, the 2Mbit AT25EU0021A can perform an entire chip erase in a few ms compared to hundreds of ms, significantly reducing total energy consumption compared to existing SPI NOR Flash solutions.
• The growing demand for connected devices worldwide is expected to increase even further, with Ericsson estimating that by 2026, there will be around 26 billion connections related to IoT. These connected IoT devices will include connected cars, meters, machines, sensors, point-of-sale terminals, consumer electronics, and wearables. The growth in smartphones and easy accessibility to high-speed internet is driving the demand for connected devices, offering ease of operation, removing geographical restrictions, and enabling operation from anywhere. This growing mobile connectivity across the world is an enabler for this growth.
• Moreover, the IoT industry is expected to have an economic impact of over USD 11 trillion by 2025, according to the IoT platform Particle. This signifies the growing demand and application of IoT across the world, and with such growth expected over the forecast period, the requirement for IoT components such as NOR flashes will continue to rise.
• Apart from the consumer electronics application of IoT, industrial adoption is also increasing rapidly. For example, according to Aruba Networks, IoT devices have become increasingly pervasive, with 85% of businesses expected to have implemented the technology. Emerging applications, business models, and falling device costs have been instrumental in driving IoT adoption, consequently increasing the number of connected devices and endpoints globally, further driving demand in the market.

China to Hold Major Market Share

• The rise in portable electronic devices, combined with the growing penetration of advanced technologies like IoT among the Chinese population, is a major factor driving the growth of the NOR flash memory market. The sales of consumer electronics in China are increasing, which is further escalating the growth of the NOR flash market.
• China is the world's largest purchaser of electronics, and the country has recently taken measures to increase production. In January 2021, the Chinese government announced its aim to increase the domestic market for electronic components to RMB 2.1 trillion (327 billion USD) by 2023. Several top market participants, including GigaDevice, are also based in the region. China's electronics industry is one of the largest in the world, and it is anticipated to have a significant impact on both the sale of NOR Flash devices and the country's overall economic growth.
• According to the State Council of the People's Republic of China, the added value of significant electronics manufacturers increased by 12.7% year over year in the two months between January and February 2022, as opposed to the 7.5% growth experienced by the nation's entire industrial sector. The demand for NOR flash memory devices is driven by China, the world's top producer of consumer electronics such as TVs, cellphones, laptops, and PCs.
• The concentration of electronics manufacturing in China has provided a foundation for the significant development of IoT products in the country, further stimulated by massive domestic consumer demand. IoT development in China also benefits from massive state-led spending on enabling infrastructure. For instance, China recently announced a three-year plan for new IoT infrastructure development (2021-2023), targeting the initial completion of new IoT infrastructure in major cities by the end of 2023. Such initiatives will fuel the growth of IoT-enabled smart devices, facilitating market growth.
• China is also quickening the building of 5G base stations to enable 5G applications in various sectors, including the industrial and educational sectors. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the number of 5G users in China increased by 48.1 million in the first quarter of 2022, reaching 403 million. The country has a 24.3% 5G penetration rate. As a result, IoT and other intelligent automation applications that use NOR memory devices are expanding, thanks to the wider use of 5G networks.

NOR Flash Memory Industry Overview

The NOR Flash Memory market is moderately fragmented, with major vendors such as Infineon, Micron Technology, GigaDevice Semiconductor (Beijing) Inc., and Winbond Electronics Corporation dominating the market. High entry barriers make it difficult for new players to enter the market. Existing vendors are investing heavily in the research and development of new and innovative products.

In November 2022, Micron Technology Inc. announced an expansion of its silicon root-of-trust solution, Authenta, which makes its cloud-based IoT security offerings more widely accessible. Micron is enabling Authenta in a family of Serial Peripheral Interface NOR devices with improved density and packaging alternatives and unveiling the Authenta Cloud Platform to assist enterprises in deploying and scaling trust-based security at the intelligent edge.

In September 2022, GigaDevice developed an automotive-grade MCU based on the Arm Cortex-M33 core, marking its entry into the car-use MCU segment. The first GigaDevice automotive MCUs, codenamed GD32A503, are manufactured using a 40 nm embedded flash memory process. GigaDevice's GD32A503 series of MCUs are suitable for developing automotive electronics applications, including body control modules, lighting, smart cockpits, ADAS, and power supplies.

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