Top Suppliers Retain NOR Rankings in Q1
Published: 30 May 2006
by Staff
El Segundo, CA – Spansion LLC in the first quarter retained its position as the world’s leading supplier of NOR-type flash memory, according to preliminary market-share data from iSuppli Corp.
The U.S.-based company achieved NOR sales of $562 million in the first quarter, down 6.5% sequentially. Intel held onto second place with revenue of $537 million, down 10.5% from $600M in the fourth quarter. Europe’s STMicroelectronics remained in third place with revenue of $327 million, a 2.4% decline from Q4.
“Revenue for each of the top-three NOR suppliers was lower in the first quarter than it was in the fourth. This was not unexpected because it reflects normal seasonal sales patterns in the NOR market,” said Mark DeVoss senior analyst for iSuppli.The U.S.-based company achieved NOR sales of $562 million in the first quarter, down 6.5% sequentially. Intel held onto second place with revenue of $537 million, down 10.5% from $600M in the fourth quarter. Europe’s STMicroelectronics remained in third place with revenue of $327 million, a 2.4% decline from Q4.
Despite this seasonal decline, some NOR suppliers managed to buck the trend, and achieved sequential revenue growth in the first quarter.
These companies included Micron Technology, which sold $43M worth of NOR in the first quarter, up 23%. Samsung Electronics Co. also notched up its best-ever quarter for NOR flash sales, with revenue of $125M, up 9% from the fourth quarter.
Intel in the first quarter reported NAND-type flash memory revenue of $7 million. This is the first recognition of revenues from IM Flash Technologies, Intel’s joint venture with Micron that manufactures NAND.
The revenue declines experienced in the NOR market in 2004 and 2005 precluded any major investment by the main suppliers in new NOR flash manufacturing capacity during those years, according to iSuppli. Instead, the NOR suppliers focused on migrating to finer pitch lithography, increasing their production of two-bit-per-cell flash technologies and entering into foundry support agreements for producing legacy technology products.
While these moves are not insignificant, they may prove to be inadequate in the face of the increasing demand for flash memory for mobile phones and other electronic devices. Because of this, iSuppli predicts that shortages of NOR products could materialize in 2006.
