Samsung leads the smartphone memory chip market with 47% revenue share in calendar year 2019

The latest research report “Smartphone Memory Market Share in Q4 2019: Samsung Dominates NAND Flash and DRAM Market, Revenue Declines”, released by Strategy Analytics’ mobile phone component technology research service, pointed out that the global smartphone memory chip market in calendar year 2019 reached US$39.3 billion.

According to the report, in calendar year 2019, Samsung Memory maintained its leadership with a 47% share of smartphone memory revenue, followed by SK Hynix and Micron. Samsung continues to strengthen its position in the NAND Flash and DRAM markets. In calendar year 2019, the top three vendors captured nearly 84% revenue share in the global smartphone memory market.

NAND market

The total revenue of the NAND Flash market for smartphones fell by 29% year-on-year due to the slowdown in market demand in calendar year 2019. Samsung Memory dominated the market with a 42% revenue share; followed by Kioxia with 22% and SK Hynix with 16%.

DRAM market

In calendar year 2019, the overall smartphone DRAM market revenue declined 27% year over year due to lower demand and price challenges. In terms of vendor share, Samsung Memory has a revenue share of 51%, followed by SK Hynix with 29% and Micron with 19%.

Strategy Analytics analyst Jeffrey Mathews said: “In calendar year 2019, memory market earnings declined due to lower memory chip prices due to seasonal factors and an oversupply in the existing market. Samsung Memory gained ground in calendar year 2019 with its NAND Flash and DRAM memory chips. Customer orders from major smartphone OEMs, and gains. Increased demand for eMMC and UFS-based multi-chip packages drove Samsung Memory and SK Hynix chip shipments in 2019.

Stephen Entwistle, Vice President, Strategic Technology Practice Services at Strategy Analytics, said, “The smartphone memory market demand is expected to slow in the future due to disruptions in global smartphone production and reduced market demand for end products due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We also note that, Memory suppliers will soon be able to expand their product portfolios by taking advantage of the growing demand from smartphone OEMs for new memory technologies such as UFS 3.0 and LPDDR5.”