PCIe-based SSDs on the desktop platform have remained niche despite Intel's best efforts to popularise them with M.2 and SATA Express support on the Z97 and X99 platforms. For desktop users there is little incentive to make the move from SATA SSDs as M.2 SSD's are considerable more expensive per gigabyte without delivering much extra performance, and SATA Express SSDs are still not available to purchase. Longer standing PCIe SSDs on expansion cards offer significant performance benefits but often struggle with compatibility issues and command even higher price-premiums than M.2 counterparts.
Digitimes predict that this could all change in 2015 when demand for PCIe SSDs will reportedly soar. This increased demand will be driven by the notebook market where the benefits of PCIe SSDs are already being felt in Apple's Macbooks and other premium notebooks. At present the notebook market has a 5-10% penetration rate from PCIe SSDs but that could rise to 40-50% by the end of 2015. Industry sources believe that the price of 256GB PCIe SSDs could fall as low as 60 USD if market expansion keeps pace with expectations.
At the forefront of PCIe SSD market expansion will be Marvell, Phison and Samsung since all three companies have the capability to manufacture PCIe SSD controllers on the 28nm process. Intel is seeking to further enhance growth of PCIe SSDs with its next-gen 100-series chipset, for Skylake CPUs, that is set to arrive in 2015.
