SSD adoption on the rise across Europe

Adoption rates of solid-state disks (SSDs) in notebooks and desktops are on the rise across Europe, with 53% of notebooks sold through Western Europe’s largest distributors in Q2 2018 featuring SSDs compared to 41% in the same quarter a year ago.

That’s according to the latest data published by IT market intelligence company CONTEXT, who noted that for desktops, the share of those with SSDs rose from 27% to 38% in Q2 2018.

“The increase in both categories was driven by a rise in volume sales of SSD-based systems coupled with a decline in products featuring traditional hard disks,” said Marie-Christine Pygott, senior analyst at CONTEXT.

“SSD adoption rates were also up compared to Q1 2018 when 51% of notebooks and 35% of desktops were based on the newer storage technology.”

Adoption rates were lower in Central and Eastern Europe but there was still a steady rise. In the first two months of Q2 2018, 32% of notebooks sold in the region featured SSDs compared to 22% a year ago, while SSD desktops’ share rose from 21% to 28%.

After rising in 2017, the prices of SSDs fell in the first half of this year, which CONTEXT says has helped to drive up adoption rates. In Western Europe, for example, in Q2 2018 the average distributor sell price for 256GB SSDs – the most popular size in PC clients – was down from €89 to €71 year-on-year.

SSD adoption rates are expected to increase over time as the availability of SSDs improves and prices of those with higher capacities fall.

So, if you’re selling SSDs, which Western European countries should you be targeting?

According to CONTEXT, Switzerland saw a 62% increase in SSD adoption rates in notebooks in Q2, with Germany and the UK seeing 54% and 50% respectfully.

The likes of Italy, Spain and France has also seen a shift in SSD adoption in notebooks, with all three countries seeing around a 40% increase in Q2. In Eastern Europe the figures are also healthy, with Poland and the Czech Republic seeing similar adoption rate increases.