Samsung is the market leader of flash chips
|
Samsung has moved to reassure investors that it expects the price of memory chips used in digital cameras and music players to stabilise by the summer.
The comments from the world's largest producer of Nand flash chips came a day after fellow Korean firm Hynix said the sector should brace for a slump.
Hynix predicts Nand prices will dip 25% in the first quarter of 2006, and by 50% across 2006 as a whole.
Samsung counters that it expects demand to recover during the second quarter.
iPod Nano
Hwang Chang-gyu, president and chief executive of Samsung's semiconductor business said he expected the recovery to be led by improved sales of high-end mobile phones and portable music players.
The market for Nand flash memory, which has been driven by devices such as Apple's iPod Nano, grew 65% to $10.9bn (£6.2bn) in 2005, according to industry estimates.
Samsung leads the market with a 50.4% share.
It is followed by Toshiba on 19% and Hynix at 16.8%.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~47~RS~)
One-Minute World News
News services
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
