The NAND flash market was generally healthy in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. However, Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk respectively faced pressures such as competitive pricing and end-market demands.
According to TrendForce’s latest report, the tablet industry has entered its maturity as the worldwide tablets shipments in 2014 totaled 192 million units, a 2.2% decline compared with the previous year. Besides market saturation, tablets still do not have a strong productive role in everyday lives of consumers and are susceptible to substitution. As a result, the tablet market did not have a noticeable replacement demand and additional growth was limited.