Samsung pulls ahead in DRAM sales

SEMICONDUCTOR research analysts released their third quarter market share figures for DRAM showing that revenues remained almost static in the third quarter.

Revenues worldwide only grew by 0.2 per cent compared to the previous quarter, but were 39.7 per cent up compared to the same quarter last year.

Some of the top five Dramurai registered strong growth, according to Andrew Norwood, principal analyst at Gartner's semiconductor group. Samsung captured 31 per cent of the market revenue, but the real battle is for second place, he said.

And that shows Micron and Hynix in joint second position with revenues of around $1 billion apiece. Micron pulled up to catch up with Hynix, but Japanese firm Elpida saw its revenue rising by 17 per cent, to stand at $455 million.

Outside the top five in the table below, Norwood said that Powerchip Semi rose by 16 per cent to reach $325 million in the third quarter, pipping Nanya's sales for the quarter. µ

3Q04 Top 5 DRAM Vendor Market Share
	Millions of U.S. Dollars
	Q3 2004		Share		Share		Growth
	Rank		3Q04	3Q04	2Q04	2Q04	3Q04/2Q04
	1	Samsung	2,155	31.4%	2,060	30.1%	4.6%
	2	Hynix	1,040	15.2%	1,139	16.7%	-8.7%
	2	Micron	1,040	15.2%	1,021	14.9%	1.9%
	4	Infineon	955	13.9%	941	13.8%	1.5%
	5	Elpida	455	6.6%	390	5.7%	16.7%
		Others	1,209	17.6%	1,286	18.8%	-6.0%
		Total	6,854	100.0%	6,837	100.0%	0.2%
	Notes: Licensing, embedded memory and flash revenues have been excluded from Infineon's revenue.
	Similar adjustments have been made for other vendors.
Source: Gartner Dataquest (November 2004)