April 28, 2006 – A “blistering” 49% surge in revenues to $1.16 billion propelled Infineon Technologies AG to the No. 2 spot among DRAM manufacturers in 1Q06, the highest position ever for the German chipmaker, according to new data from iSuppli Corp.
Infineon saw its market share jump from 12.6% in 4Q06 to 17.5%, as it leapfrogged South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and US-based Micron Technology Inc., both of whom saw sales slide 7% quarter-on-quarter to start the year as they shift from DRAM production to more lucrative NAND flash memory, noted Nam Hyung Kim, iSuppli director and principal analyst, memory ICs/storage systems. The chipmaker also benefited from an eye-opening 30% ramp in DRAM bit shipments during the quarter, due to its business supplying graphics DRAM for Microsoft’s Xbox gaming system (graphics DRAM doubled to 16% of overall shipments during the quarter).
The higher-priced graphics DRAM also helped boost Infineon’s DRAM average selling prices (ASP) by 6% during the quarter — vs. a 1% decline in ASPs from market-leading commodity DRAM provider Samsung, which actually lost 2.8 percentage points of market share during the quarter. Infineon is set to spin off its memory division, to be called Qimonda, later this quarter.
While market leaders Samsung, Hynix, and Micron lost ground in 1Q06, others further down the ladder took advantage. Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc. boosted sales by 34% during 1Q06 to $640 million, and gained 2.0 points of market share. Taiwan’s second-tier DRAM manufacturers also made strides, with Nanya, Powerchip, and ProMOS increasing DRAM sales by 7%, 9%, and 5%, respectively.
PRELIMINARY 1Q06 WORLDWIDE DRAM MARKET SHARE
1 Samsung 1,762 -3% 26.6% 29.4%
2 Infineon $1,160 49% 17.5% 12.6%
3 Hynix $953 -7% 14.4% 16.5%
4 Micron $886 -7% 13.4% 15.4%
5 Elpida $640 34% 9.7% 7.7%
6 Nanya $445 7% 6.7% 6.7%
7 P’chip $343 9% 5.2% 5.1%
8 ProMos $213 5% 3.2% 3.3%
9 Etron $70 40% 1.1% 0.8%
10 Elite $39 -5% 0.6% 0.7%
Others $108 5% 1.6% 1.7%
TOTAL $6,619 7% 100.0% 100.0%
Source: iSuppli Corp.