Firm Grasp
Korean firms' share of the global mobile DRAM market exceeded 75 percent in the first half of this year. The number is the highest-ever achieved by one country.
According to semiconductor e-commerce site DRAMeXchange on May 27, Samsung Electronics ranked first in the global mobile DRAM market in Q1 2015 with a 52.1 percent share. SK Hynix was in the runner-up position with 22.9 percent, followed by Micron (22.6 percent), Nanya (1.4 percent), and Winbond (0.9 percent).
Samsung reported US$1.863 billion in sales of mobile DRAM during the period, up 11.9 percent from Q4 2014. Its market share was a 6.0 percent increase from the previous quarter (46.1 percent).
DRAMeXchange said that the top-ranked company was able to hold a dominant position in the market since it was ahead of competitors in micro process technology, product competitiveness, and purchasing power. As an illustration, Samsung is mass-producing 20-nm and 23-nm mobile DRAM. On top of that, the firm is the first one in the industry that produces 6Gb and 8Gb LPDDR4.
SK Hynix saw its sales drop by 18.7 percent and its market share decrease by 5 percent compared to Q4 2014. It is attributable to the fact that the company was hit especially hard by the off-season, unlike Samsung. Micron also experienced a 3.6 percent reduction in sales, which led to a 0.7 percent drop in market share.
Korean companies' combined share of the mobile DRAM market in Q1 2015 was 3.4 percent higher than the number for the DRAM market (71.7 percent). Korean firms' combined sales also reached a record high in the DRAM market during the period.
Meanwhile, the proportion of mobile DRAM in the entire DRAM market was 29.8 percent. While PC DRAM prices dropped suddenly, mobile DRAM prices were relatively steady.