NAND Flash Race Heats Up in 1Q11: Toshiba Close to Samsung

The battle for leadership in the NAND flash memory segment heated up in the �rst quarter of 2011 as No. 2 supplier Toshiba Corp. came close to matching the market share of perennial industry leader Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., according to new research from IHS iSuppli written by Michael Yang, Principal Analyst, Memory & Storage.

Samsung in the first quarter commanded 35.9 percent share of the NAND flash market with $1.91 billion in revenue. Toshiba, meanwhile, was hot on Samsung’s trail with 35.6 percent share and revenue of $1.89 billion.

Toshiba’s NAND revenue in the first quarter rose by 13.9 percent sequentially, compared to 11.4 percent for Samsung. But what’s more impressive is that Toshiba’s NAND revenue in the first quarter of 2011 was up 28.5 percent over the same period in 2010, while Samsung’s rose by only 13.8 percent. As a result, the gap in market share between the two companies narrowed to just 0.3 of a percentage point in the first quarter, down from 1.1 points in the fourth quarter of 2010.

In third place and far below the two market powerhouses was Micron Technology Inc. with 11.1 percent market share and revenue of $591 million.

Of interest is that while both companies are growing their NAND flash business, Toshiba expanded somewhat faster during the period. However, Samsung very likely will try to regain any lost market share or momentum during the rest of the year, IHS believes, given that the company has occupied the top NAND spot for more than eight years. Still, the clash for the pinnacle could oscillate in the coming quarters between the two top players, making for fascinating watching.

The Japanese earthquake in March had no impact on first-quarter NAND results, but any notable consequences might not appear until early in the third quarter.

Samsung dominates mobile DRAM
While Samsung is in a tooth-and-nail fight to regain NAND leadership, it dominated the mobile DRAM market during the period. Samsung posted revenue of $1.1 billion in the first quarter, good enough for a whopping 48.2 percent of the market.

Meanwhile, fighting for the No. 2 spot are Samsung rivals Hynix Semiconductor of South Korea, with 24.3 percent of the market; and Elpida Memory of Japan, with 22.4 percent.  Together, both companies accounted for 46.7 percent of the NAND market, just slightly under Samsung’s commanding lead. Hynix posted revenue of $569 million in the quarter, while Elpida had $523 million.

Among all flash memory products, mobile DRAM witnessed the most significant annual gains. The players in this space likewise showed impressive results: Samsung grew 126 percent, Hynix expanded 173 percent, and Elpida soared at an explosive 607 percent.

Such figures show that mobile DRAM is quickly becoming a technology of choice in the flash memory market, with current demand running at fever pitch.