Hynix became the

The giant Samsung continues to stand at the top, but the market has generally shown signs of slowing down, as the battle of lower prices makes revenue "freeze".

Despite the fierce competition and rise of Hydrix Semiconductor, Samsung continues to hold the position of " World's largest DRAM memory chip maker in 2006 ", according to data released by iSuppli.

Hynix has lost the runner-up position from Qimonda thanks to an extremely impressive fourth quarter: Factory sales rose 31%, outstripping the average 14% growth of the market.

Source: Technologyreview In 2006, Samsung earned $ 9.5 billion in revenue from DRAM, accounting for 28% of the market share. Next is Hynix with 16.6% market share, Qimonda 15.9%, Micron 11% and Elpida 10.4%. The total market value reached 33.9 billion USD.

Hardware companies use DRAM memory chips in a multitude of different products, from personal computers, printers, hard drives, mobile phones, digital cameras to televisions and game consoles.

Optimistic or pessimistic?

Despite the ever-increasing demand, iSuppli said that the low cost of DRAM down in 2007 could cause "sails to wind down": Factory sales increased and profits declined.

However, businesses are more optimistic. Qimonda predicts that demand in 2007 will jump, as Microsoft releases a new Windows Vista operating system and many other important applications. Similarly, Samsung predicts the growing consumer electronics market will also keep DRAM demand hot.

DRAM companies hope to maintain this momentum by relying on technological advances, continuing to "compress" the chip from 90 nm technology to below 80 nm in a short time. At the same time, they also plan to upgrade from the current DDR2 design to DDR3.

In the top, only Samsung is the most difficult. In December 2006, one of its officials was jailed and paid a big fine after the US Justice Department investigated the price fixing behavior of the Korean giant.

Trong Cam