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STMicroelectronics Confirmed as 2004 Market Leader for Serial Non-Volatile Memory Products28 April 2005
STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) has been confirmed as the world's number one supplier of serial non-volatile memory (NVM) products by industry analyst Web-Feet Research, Inc. The Web-Feet report* into 2004 NVM Market Share, published in March 2005, shows ST increasing its market share by 4.4% to move into first place in the Serial EEPROM rankings, as well as claiming the lead in the Serial Flash listings which are published for the first time this year.
With the Serial EEPROM market growing nearly 15% in 2004, and eclipsing the shrinking Parallel EEPROM figures, ST achieved impressive revenue growth of 32.5% to sales of $224 million, taking the lead with over 32% of the market. Serial EEPROMs are used in a wide range of products, in automotive, consumer, computing and PC peripheral markets. The company's production volume increased more than 40% in 2004 to reach a total of more than 1 billion devices. This number also includes chips produced in volume for the emerging Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) market.
ST produced more than 120 million Serial Flash memories in 2004, a 50% increase over 2003, to take an industry-leading 26.9% market share in this relatively new segment. Growth is driven by cost-sensitive but memory-hungry applications in computing, peripherals, and consumer markets. ST satisfied the demand by offering a wide range of innovative products, including devices with the highest clock frequency in the market.
Applications are moving increasingly to software-driven solutions that need more and more storage for data, parameters, and identifiers. Serial products are gaining share compared to parallel access devices, with serial
NVM -- both EEPROM and Flash -- becoming the preferred choice where lower package and connection costs, as well as smaller device footprints, are critical. Future trends will see continuing transition to high-density
products, solutions for higher-speed serial data transfer, and development of products with very low pin count in low-cost packages.
"ST has confirmed its Serial EEPROM leadership thanks to its high quality manufacturing, its broad product portfolio, and its success in taking the Serial Flash concept from PCs and peripherals and proliferating it in the
growing digital consumer market," said Benoit Rodrigues, Serial Non-Volatile Memories Marketing Director at STMicroelectronics.
"ST's production volumes and sales have shown impressive growth in 2004, and the company has performed extremely well compared to its competitors," said Alan Niebel of Web-Feet Research. "Serial NVM is a fast growing sector, and ST clearly has the wide product range, as well as the innovative technologies, to deliver the memory solutions that manufacturers are demanding."
Further information on ST's Serial Non-Volatile Memories is available at http://www.st.com/eeprom and at http://www.st.com/serialflash
About STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is a global leader in developing and delivering semiconductor solutions across the spectrum of microelectronics applications. An unrivalled combination of silicon and system expertise, manufacturing
strength, Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio and strategic partners positions the Company at the forefront of System-on-Chip (SoC) technology and its products play a key role in enabling today's convergence markets. The
Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2004, the Company's net revenues were $8.76 billion and net earnings were $601 million. Further information on ST can be found at http://www.st.com.
* Web-Feet Research, Inc. Report: CS700MS-25, February 2005: "2004 Non-
Volatile Memory Market Shares by Vendor"
For further information, please contact
INVESTOR RELATIONS:
Stanley March Fabrizio Rossini
Vice President Senior Manager
Investor Relations Investor Relations
Tel: +1.212.821.89.39 Tel: +41.22.929.69.73
Fax: +1.212.821.89.23 Fax: +41.22.929.69.61
Email: stan.march@st.com Email: fabrizio.rossini@st.com
Benoit de Leusse
Director
Investor Relations
Tel : +41.22.929.58.12
Fax : +41.22.929.69.61
Email: benoit.de-leusse@st.com
MEDIA RELATIONS:
Maria Grazia Prestini Michael Markowitz
Director, Corporate Media Relations Director, U.S. Media Relations
Tel: +41.2.29.29.69.45 Tel: +1.212.821.8959
Fax: +41.2.29.29.69.50 Fax: +1.212.821.8922
Email: mariagrazia.prestini@st.com Email: michael.markowitz@st.com
Further information on Serial EEPROM and Serial Flash
Number 1 for Serial EEPROM
EEPROMs are the biggest drivers for this serial growth. Standard products
find increasing demand and acceptance in automotive, mobile consumer,
computer, communication and industrial markets. They are used in sensors,
motor controls, TV, white goods, cordless phones, Set-Top Boxes (STBs),
security systems, and in many small-volume applications. They are also widely
used in PCs -- in the motherboard, monitor, hard disk drive, CD drives, mouse,
LAN cards, DIMMs, and battery packs, as well as in computer peripherals.
The 2004 Web-Feet report demonstrates that ST's Serial EEPROM division is
succeeding in its mission to provide state-of the-art products leading to
world leadership in the market. This success has grown from a commitment to
continuous innovation, coupled with timely delivery of quality products. ST
was the first Serial EEPROM supplier to build and deliver memory solutions to
the automotive industry, with its demands for security, high quality and
durability under extreme conditions; since 1998, ST's strong commitment to the
automotive market has resulted in innovative solutions of outstanding quality,
with related service and support levels.
In addition, ST's general portfolio in serial EEPROM now ranges from 1
kbit to 1 Mbit, the broadest offer in the market. These products are also
available in very small packages such as MLP 2X3, in densities from 1 kbit to
64 kbit, for portable applications. In February 2005, ST launched a new
512-kbit memory with SPI and I2C bus interface in a TSSOP8 package, and later
this year will announce a 1-Mbit device in an SO8 package, and a 256-kbit
device in TSSOP8 and S08 packages.
Number 1 for Serial Flash
ST has been a leader in Serial Flash since the launch of this new product
type for code and data storage in 2001. Serial Flash memories are now in use
across all application areas: they are widely used for code storage and user
settings in cost-sensitive applications such as CD and DVD players, hard disk
drives, PC motherboards, graphic cards, flat panel displays, printers,
digital-TV and cameras. New applications such as wireless LANs, set-top boxes,
and DSL and cable modems are turning to Serial Flash to save board space,
simplify PCB tracks, and reduce power consumption and overall system costs.
Innovation is also the reason for the success of ST's Serial Flash
products. Active in both data and code storage markets, ST offers the 512-kbit
to 64-Mbit M25P family - soon to be joined by 128-Mbit device -- for code
storage, which features the fastest clock frequency on the market at 40/50MHz.
For data and parameter storage, in addition to the M45PE series, ST is
introducing the 1-Mbit to 16-Mbit M25PE family with standard SPI pinout and
other specific features, as well as a dedicated device for PC Bios
applications.
Source: PR Newswire
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