Following reports that Kingston Technology is cutting prices for all of its NAND flash products in the retail market by as much as 15%, SanDisk has also adjusted downward prices for products that include memory cards and USB drives in an effort to protect its market share, according to sources at memory module makers.

SanDisk remains the world's largest vendor of flash-based memory cards with an about 40% market share, the sources indicated. Initiating a price-cutting strategy is purposed to boost sales volume and maintain the company's leading market share, the sources said.

Kingston reportedly has launched its first-wave price reduction especially in emerging market, which is aimed at growing its presence in the global NAND flash product segment. But the company responded saying its price adjustments are to coordinate chip suppliers' shift to more advanced 2Xnm production technologies.

SanDisk mainly partners with chipmaker Toshiba while Kingston secures its supplies from more diversified sources.

According to DRAMeXchange, major NAND flash vendors are gearing up for mass production built using their newer node processes in the first quarter of 2012. Samsung Electronics and Toshiba are set to advance to 21nm and 19nm, respectively, and so are Hynix Semiconductor and Micron Technology to their respective 20nm processes.