Six million mobile subscriptions were registered in the Middle East in 2013, marking a steep growth in the number of smartphone users and signaling a boom in the solid state drive (SSD), said an industry expert.

“The adaptation of SSD in Europe and Middle East and Africa were some of the biggest storage trends in 2013 and it will only continue from here,” said Tareq Husseini, regional sales director Mediterranean Middle East and Africa at SanDisk, a global leader in flash memory.

“SSD penetration is now evolving. While SSDs were particularly for gamers we are now seeing an infiltration in the corporate market. This will definitely continue into the coming years. The same goes for mobile, the UAE region is one of the top countries in the world for smartphone penetration.”

In Ericsson’s 2013 Mobility Report, the company predicted that global smartphone subscriptions would reach 5.6 billion by 2019.

According to the survey the driver of this demand is mobile video, this is becoming the major avenue for storage. Currently, 35 per cent of all global mobile data traffic comes from video and is set to grow by 2019, which SanDisk believes will lead to faster and bigger storage.

“Flash memory will grow and become one of the primary storage solutions going forward. In a recent SanDisk report, global penetration of NAND Flash in all personal computers will grow from 8 per cent in 2012 to 52 per cent in 2016,” added Husseini.

“The Mobility Report which surveyed Africa, Middle East, Latin America, North America, APAC, China and India also predicted that NAND Flash will grow to 38 billion dollars. “The region is no exception - NAND Flash is growing and presents a huge opportunity at present and in the coming years,” concluded Husseini. – TradeArabia News Service