Worldwide DRAM revenues declined five per cent in 2005 to $25bn down from $26.3bn in 2004, according to Gartner Dataquest. It was the first annual decline since 2001.
"NAND flash saved the DRAM industry from a major collapse," said Andrew Norwood, research vice-president at Gartner Dataquest.
During 2005, major DRAM vendors like Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor diverted production to NAND, saving the DRAM industry from an even more acute oversupply and falling prices.
"Even with their focus on NAND flash in 2005 Samsung and Hynix still dominate the DRAM industry with just under 50 per cent of the market between them," added Norwood.
Both vendors managed to increase their market shares slightly over 2004. Third and fourth placed vendors Micron Technology and Infineon Technologies both saw their market shares decline.
"It was Nanya Technology and Elpida Memory that were the star performers in 2005," commented Norwood. Nanya saw revenues increase by 21.4 per cent and Elpida saw revenues increase by 13.7 per cent.
US based specialty DRAM vendor Integrated Silicon Solution (ISSI) saw the strongest growth in the top-ten rankings after it acquired Taiwanese competitor Integrated Circuit Solution during 2005.