El Segundo, Calif. — Wal-Mart was the largest seller of USB drives and flash-memory cards in the United States in the second quarter, according to a new report from iSuppli.
The discounter accounted for 20 percent of all flash-storage devices sold at retail in the second quarter of the year, the research firm reported. Best Buy followed with 18 percent and Circuit City rounded out the top three with 7 percent of all flash-storage sales.
The average capacity for memory sold through Wal-Mart was 1GB but the Bentonville dealer didn’t have the lowest prices, nor did other discount retailers such as Costco. That honor went to online-only players like Buy.com and Amazon.com, the research firm said. Office supply stores also beat the industry average price for flash, iSuppli said.
Of the top 10 flash-memory retailers, Fry’s Electronics “provides the best value to consumers” iSuppli reported.
According to iSuppli, 118 million flash-memory cards will be shipped this year, growing to 243 million in 2011. U.S. shipments of USB flash drives will hit 64 million units in 2011, from 37 million this year.
