SanDisk & Samsung

The research firm iSuppli provides some additional context to the day’s news:

·         Samsung was the world’s leading supplier of NAND-type flash memory in the second quarter, with a 42.3 percent share of global revenue. The company’s NAND revenue amounted to $1.4 billion during the quarter. In comparison, No.-2 Toshiba had $925 million in NAND revenue, giving it a 27.5 percent share of the market. See the attached file for a ranking table.

·         Samsung was the only profitable NAND supplier during the second quarter due to its diverse product line, iSuppli believes.

·         Due to intense competition and the slowdown of the economy, the NAND flash market has been experiencing a sharp downturn since the beginning of 2008. iSuppli early this year warned that the NAND market would experience a challenging 2008. iSuppli now has cut its 2008 NAND annual flash revenue growth forecast from 9 percent to negative 3 percent.

Sandisk was the leading seller of flash memory storage cards in the United States in the second quarter with a 33.8 percent share of retail revenue.