Strategy Analytics’ first-quarter snapshot of the memory market certifies the industry’s recovery on the one hand, and Samsung’s dominance on the other.
That Samsung is a large, indeed huge, company with its hands in the pie just about everywhere is hardly news. It has an internal department for almost every component that makes up a smartphone, from memories to chips via displays, cameras and batteries. But it always makes a certain impression to see in the numbers the influence of the South Korean company in almost every area in which it is engaged.
The latest report by Strategy Analytics puts on paper the numbers that tell the recovery of the smartphone industry – almost paralyzed a year ago these days by the explosion of the health emergency – through the analysis of RAM and ROM memories, components from which no smartphone can do without – as well as no tablet, computer, etc., but it’s a much broader story than the one photographed by the analysts’ report. The estimate says that half of the memory market, including RAM modules and internal memories precisely, is in the hands of Samsung with its 49%, followed at a great distance by SK Hynix with 23% and Micron with its 14% that secures the podium. So the top three memory manufacturers in the world own 86% of the market, leaving the crumbs (about 14%) to the group composed of all other manufacturers.
They are all growing, but Samsung the most
Impressive is the picture of the market recovery that comes out of the report by Strategy Analytics. In the first quarter of 2021, storage media grew 18% in the year-over-year comparison, with Samsung Memory even achieving +42%, SK Hynix +20% and Kioxia +19%.
When it comes to RAM, comparing the first quarter of 2021 with the previous year shows a growth of 21%, with Samsung Memory once again having the largest increase with +54%, followed by +25% and +20% from SK Hynix and Micron respectively.
“The significant demand for 5G smartphones has created favorable conditions for the growth of the smartphone memory market. Manufacturers are expected to meet the demand for 5G products with the introduction of UFS 3.1-type memories and high-capacity LPDDR5 RAM. However, the global chip shortage is also impacting the thriving memory market, which could potentially be affected by the challenging times,” commented Stephen Entwistle, vice president of Strategy Analytics Strategic.
Samsung is also a leader in displays
To these numbers, from which we can already guess how many smartphones in the world have components produced by Samsung, we must also add those related to another fundamental component of cell phones: the screen.
Samsung is also a leader in this sector (together with LG), where it proposes its AMOLED technology to many oriental producers and even to Apple for its iPhone. The Apple-Samsung union for displays will be strengthened with the arrival on the market of the iPhone 13 that, according to reliable rumors, will be equipped with a screen with LTPO technology: the same already seen on Samsung S21 Ultra.