Samsung garners 40 pct of global NAND flash market

SEOUL, April 4 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. accounted for more than 40 percent of the global market for NAND flash products in the fourth quarter of 2015, data showed Monday, marking the first time in more than three years to reach the mark.

The South Korean tech giant took up 40.2 percent of the global NAND flash market in the October-December period, data compiled by industry tracker IHS showed. It marked the first time for the share to hover above the 40-percent mark since the 41.4 percent posted in the second quarter of 2012.

NAND flash memory products are widely used in smartphones and laptops. Compared to mobile dynamic random access memory, flash memory can preserve data even when it has no power supply.

The fourth quarter performance marked a 3.5 percentage point rise from 36.7 percent posted a quarter earlier. Japan-based Toshiba Corp. followed with a share of 27.3 percent.

U.S.-based Micron Technology, Inc. took up 18.9 percent of the NAND flash market in the fourth quarter, followed by Samsung's smaller South Korean rival SK hynix Inc. with 13.6 percent.

colin@yna.co.kr
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