Korean companies' share of the global mobile dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip market hit an all-time high in the third quarter of the year, far outpacing their rivals, data showed Sunday.
Samsung Electronics Co. accounted for 56.9 percent of global mobile DRAM sales in the July-September period, with Samsung's smaller domestic rival SK hynix Inc. taking up 26.4 percent, according to the data by industry tracker DRAMeXchange.
The combined market share of Samsung and SK hynix was also 1.8 percentage points higher than three months earlier.
Micron Group of the United States was a distant third with 15.3 percent, with Taiwan-based Nanya Technology Corp. and Winbond Electronics Corp. claiming 0.9 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
In terms of the value of sales, Samsung posted the largest quarterly amount of $2.58 billion in the third quarter, with SK hynix also ringing up a record $1.2 billion.
According to DRAMeXchange, SK hynix widened its gap with Micron thanks to its explosive growth in shipments.
SK hynix saw its sales spike 30.5 percent in the third quarter, while comparable growth figures were 16.5 percent for Samsung and 9.2 percent for Micron.
After announcing its third-quarter results, SK hynix said late last month the portion of mobile DRAMs to DRAM sales surged to the upper 30 percent range in the third quarter from a mere 3 percent in 2007.
The company said it plans to raise the percentage to more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter. (Yonhap)
