SanDisk 2012 Annual Report Download - page 115

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• that we market and sell a broader range of card formats than any of our competitors, which gives us an
advantage in obtaining strong retail and OEM distribution;
• that we have global retail distribution for our products through worldwide retail storefronts;
• that we have worldwide leading market share in removable flash cards and USB flash drives; and
• our strong financial position.
Our competitors include:
NAND Manufacturers. Our primary NAND flash memory manufacturer competitors include Hynix, Intel,
Micron Technology, Inc., or Micron, Samsung and Toshiba. We compete with these NAND flash memory
manufacturers based upon technology, advanced wafer manufacturing processes, as well as NAND cost,
performance, quality and branding.
Retail Manufacturers and Resellers. We compete with flash memory card manufacturers and resellers,
which purchase or have a captive supply of flash memory components and assemble memory cards. Our primary
competitors currently include, among others, Kingston Technology Company, Inc., or Kingston, Lexar Media,
Inc., or Lexar, a subsidiary of Micron, PNY Technologies, Inc., or PNY, Samsung, Sony and Transcend
Information, Inc., or Transcend. In the USB flash drive market, we face competition from a large number of
competitors, including Dexxxon Digital Storage, Inc., dba EMTEC Electronics, or EMTEC, Kingston, Lexar,
PNY and Verbatim Americas LLC, or Verbatim. We sell flash memory, in the form of white label cards, wafers
or components, to certain companies who sell flash products that may ultimately compete with our branded
products in the retail or OEM channels.
Client Storage Solution Manufacturers. In the market for client SSDs, we face competition from large
NAND flash producers such as Intel, Micron, Samsung and Toshiba, who have established relationships with
computer manufacturers. We also face competition from third-party client SSD solution providers such as
Kingston, OCZ Technology Group, Inc., or OCZ, and Philips Lite-On Digital Solutions Corporation, or PLDS,
and from hard drive manufacturers such as Seagate Technology LLC, or Seagate, and Western Digital
Corporation, or WDC.
Enterprise Storage Solution Manufacturers. We compete in the enterprise storage solutions market where
we face competition from large NAND flash producers such as Intel, Micron, Samsung and Toshiba, from
enterprise SSD solution providers such as Fusion-io, Inc., or Fusion-io, LSI Corporation, or LSI, SMART
Modular Technologies (WWH), Inc., or SMART Modular, STEC, Inc., or STEC, and from hard drive
manufacturers such as Seagate and WDC.
Digital Audio/Video Player Manufacturers. In the standalone digital audio/video player market, we face
strong competition from Apple. We also face competition from Coby Electronics Corporation, GPX, a brand of
Digital Products International, Inc., Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Mach Speed Technologies, LLC and
Sony, among others.
Other Technologies. Other technologies compete with our product offerings and many companies are
attempting to develop memory cells that use different designs and materials in order to increase storage capacity
and reduce memory costs. These potential competitive technologies include several types of 3-dimensional, or
3D, memory, such as vertical or stacked NAND and 3D ReRAM, as well as phase-change and charge-trap flash
technologies. We are investing with Toshiba in the development of BiCS, a vertical NAND technology, and 3D
ReRAM memory architecture.
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