Samsung Electronics Co on Thursday launched storage technology aimed at replacing computer hard disk drives as it targets the rapidly expanding memory devices market to offset slowing sales growth for smartphone memory chips.

　　Samsung is the world's top maker of the NAND flash memory chips commonly used in smartphones and solid state drives, or SSDs, which are faster, lighter and consume less power than hard disk drives found in most personal computers.

　　Global demand for SSDs is expected to grow by 75 percent this year to 78 million units, brokers Nomura said, while shipments of NAND chips for use in smartphones are expected to increase 41 per cent, weakening from 44 per cent last year and 58 per cent in 2011, as smartphone sales growth starts to wane.