Cornering DRAM
The share of the Korean semiconductor industry in the global mobile DRAM market surpassed 80 percent in the second quarter of this year, which is the highest percentage ever recorded.
Samsung Electronics comprised 57.62 percent of the global mobile DRAM market in Q2 2015 with US$2.219 billion in sales, while SK Hynix constituted 23.89 percent with US$920 million, according to market research firms and semiconductor e-commerce site DRAMeXchange on Aug. 18. The combined share of the two Korean semiconductor companies was 81.51 percent, passing the 80 percent mark for the first time. The figure for Q1 was 75.1 percent.
The Korean industry represents 75 percent of the global DRAM market. With the PC DRAM market in a stalled growth mode, the industry is apparently able to maintain its dominant position in the market by aggressively targeting the mobile DRAM market with ever-growing demand. The price of DRAM for PCs has continued to drop so far this year, but that of DRAM for mobile devices has been rising thanks to the continuing demand for smart devices. The mobile DRAM market grew 7.7 percent year-on-year to reach US$3.851 billion in Q2 of this year.
Against this backdrop, Samsung has already begun to mass-produce 4GB LPDDR4 mobile DRAM based on its 20 nm class process technology, widening the technological gap with its competitors. SK Hynix has also started to mass-produce 20 nm class mobile DRAM in the latter half of this year, closely following Samsung's technology with six month gap.