Samsung Electronics close to attaining 50% dram market share

The analyst reports that both companies saw their share of the market rise in Q3, while the top eight companies accounted for 97.6% of the dram market – up from 97.4% in the previous quarter. However, sequential revenue within these companies fell 18.5% from $8billion to $6.6bn, while the industry as a whole saw Q3 revenue drop to $6.8bn – down 15.8% from the previous quarter. IHS says the fall was due to weak pricing, which was down 23% for the period. Despite the difficult quarter, Samsung and Micron both endured the tough conditions, with Samsung enlarging its Q3 market share by 3.5% to acquire 45% of the sector; and Micron gaining 1.5% to attain a 12.1% market share. Samsung's revenue for the quarter represented $3.1bn out of the market's total $6.8bn. And the South Korean company's shipments grew 9%, while the drop in its average selling price of nearly 17% was below the market's pace of 26%. According to IHS, its success in this area is 'almost bound to continue unabated'. Micron's growth, puts the US company into fourth place and extremely close to third place Elpida Memory, which saw its dram market share decline from 14.6% to 12.1%. Second place Hynix Semiconductor saw Q3 revenue of $1.5bn, representing a market share of 21.5% down from 23.4% in the previous quarter.