South Korea’s major semiconductor companies, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix hold more than 70 percent of the smartphone memory chip market.
According to Strategy Analytics on July 8, global smartphone DRAM and NAND flash sales in the first quarter of this year were estimated at $11.5 billion (roughly Rs. 91,300 crore).
Samsung Electronics topped the market with a 46 percent share. Samsung’s market share was 52 percent in the smartphone DRAM market and 39 percent in the NAND flash market, ranking first in both markets. Second-ranked SK Hynix held a 24 percent market share. Its share was 25 percent in the DRAM market and 23 percent in the NAND flash market.
The combined share of the two companies is 70 percent. They held a 76 percent market share in the DRAM market and 62 percent in the NAND flash market. However, the market share slightly decreased from last year’s analysis (Samsung 49 percent and SK 23 percent).
The US firm Micron ranked third with a 15 percent share, and the combined share of these top three suppliers reached 85 percent.
Stephen Entwistle, vice president of Strategy Analytics, said, “Despite the growth of the 5G smartphone market, the smartphone memory market will be affected by decreased demand and macro-market uncertainties.”
A few days back, it was reported that South Korea’s Samsung turned in its best April-June profit since 2018 on last week, underpinned by strong sales of memory chips to server customers even as demand from inflation-hit smartphone makers cools.
Shares of the world’s largest memory-chip and smartphone maker rose 2.5 percent after preliminary results for the second quarter were announced, versus a 1.5 percent rise in the wider market.
Samsung posted an operating profit of KRW 14 trillion (roughly Rs. 85,135 crore), up 11 percent from KRW 12.57 trillion (roughly Rs. 76,430 crore) a year earlier, just shy of a KRW 14.45 trillion (roughly Rs. 87,870 crore) SmartEstimate from Refinitiv. Revenue rose 21 percent to KRW 77 trillion (roughly Rs. 4,67,900 crore), in line with estimates.
