DRAM market took a beating

Market oversupply and sliding average selling price were the main culprits behind the revenue decline. DRAMeXchange Research Director Avril Wu noted: “While there was some demand from smartphone inventory restocking in China, the first quarter was traditionally the slow period, and downward revisions on notebooks and iPhone shipment estimates further exacerbated the oversupply problem in the DRAM market.” Samsung stayed on top of the revenue ranking while Micron struggled to remain profitable In the first-quarter revenue ranking, Samsung securely held its position as the industry’s leader. Although Samsung’s revenue fell 16.6% quarterly to US$3.97 billion, its market share remained constant at 46.4%. Sliding prices significantly impacted SK Hynix’s revenue, resulting in a 19.2% quarterly decline to US$2.32 billion. SK Hynix retained second place in the revenue ranking with a market share of 27.1%. Micron also continued to fill the No. 3 spot with a market share of 18.5%.