Numonyx emerges as king of NOR flash memory in Q2

EL SEGUNDO, USA: In the latest round of the game of NOR flash memory leapfrog, Numonyx B.V. in the second quarter capitalized on problems at chief rival Spansion Inc. to take the lead in the global market by the sparest of margins, according to iSuppli Corp.

Numonyx’s NOR flash memory in the second quarter rose to $380 million, up $50 million from $330 million in the first quarter. In contrast, Spansion’s revenue declined by $22 million in the second quarter to $376 million, down from $398 million in the first. This put Numonyx $4 million ahead of Spansion and gave it a 0.4 percentage point market lead.

“During the past five years, Spansion and Numonyx have fought tooth and nail for the No.-1 position in the NOR flash memory market, each alternating in the top spot several times over,” said Michael Yang, senior analyst for storage and mobile memory for iSuppli. “In the second quarter, it was Numonyx’s turn to pull ahead and take its place as the top dog.”

“The battle between Spansion and Numonyx took an interesting turn in 2009, when Spansion decided to declare Chapter 11 and focus on the embedded memory segment rather than the wireless market,” Yang said.

“That left the wireless segment wide open, and suddenly other NOR companies scrambled to secure as much additional business in the handset market as they could. Those that took the greatest advantage of it were Numonyx and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Numonyx is likely to continue to pull away from Spansion during the company’s reorganization.”

Wireless, specifically cell phones, represent the largest single market for NOR flash memory, storing code in such products.

Samsung's second-quarter revenue surged by 19.4 percent to $117 million, up from $98 million in the first quarter. The company maintained its third-place ranking.

Macronix International and Silicon Storage Technology rounded out the Top-5 NOR suppliers, with each gaining revenue in the second quarter.

Strength in Spansion
While Spansion is facing a challenging reorganization, iSuppli believes the company will remain a strong player in the flash memory market.

Spansion will rebound along with the economy and be in a stable position to re-emerge as one of the continued strong players in the flash market, although it will play in different markets than before.