Although overall sales in the DRAM market have declined – particularly in the first half of the year – and Samsung Electronics could lose its top spot in the semiconductor business to Intel by the end of 2019, the company still managed to increase its DRAM market share throughout Q3 2019, according to a recent report by The Korea Herald citing DRAMeXchange.
The so-called NAND flash and DRAM boom ended a few quarters ago and sales continued to drop, putting Samsung, the world's largest DRAM manufacturer, in a difficult position. But interestingly enough, DRAMeXchange claims that overall DRAM revenues have stopped declining throughout the July-September period, and apparently, Samsung managed to increase revenue by 5%.
Samsung's DRAM market share hits a 2-year high
Not only was Samsung able to see a bump in revenue, but the company also hit a 2-year high in DRAM market share, accounting for 46.1% of shipments, claims the report. The source attributes Samsung's success to relatively high demand from Chinese smartphone manufacturers and server clients.
It remains to be seen if the upward DRAM sales trajectory from July-September will be maintained throughout Q4 as well, or if DRAM sales will begin to decline again. DRAMeXchange is apparently confident that major DRAM manufacturers like Samsung should continue to increase shipments in Q4. This might not be enough for the company to maintain its top spot in the semiconductor segment given Intel's strong computer chip sales, but Samsung shouldn't lose any ground to rivals like SK Hynix either.
