14 DAY TRIAL // NOR flash supplier Spansion has recorded a strong rise in sales on the mobile phone market and managed to claim the top spot on the global market for flash memory used in wireless handsets. The company's ranking in the overall flash market has improved by one position for the year, according to iSuppli.
Its sales of NOR-type flash memory to the mobile market rose to $1.8 billion throughout last year which is up to 35 percent from the $1.5 billion recorded in 2005. Also, the company's market share rose from 25.8 percent, in 2005, to 29.9 percent last year. All of this boosted Spansion to go up one position in the worldwide mobile phone flash memory rankings to take the top rank, surpassing Intel for the market leader title.
"The major factor behind Spansion's impressive gains was its increasing sales to top-tier handset makers and market-share increases in Japan and the Asia/Pacific region," said Mark DeVoss, senior analyst, flash /SRAM/MCP for iSuppli. "In contrast, Intel-the No. 1 supplier in 2005-slipped to No. 2 in 2006, with its flash-memory sales to the mobile-phone market rising only 5.1 percent for the year to reach $1.6 billion, up from $1.5 billion in 2005. Intel's share in mobile-phone flash fell to 26.1 percent in 2006, down from 28.9 percent in 2005. Intel's woes in the mobile-phone flash market are believed to be related to capacity issues that affected deliveries primarily to Asian mobile-phone makers."
STMicroelectronics kept the third place, recording revenue growth by 25.7 percent to $959 million last year. The company also managed to gain market share with an increase of 1.2 percentage points.