Toshiba, the No.2 NAND player, grew its revenues 50% in Q3 in a market that grew 25%, according to iSuppli.
The Q3 NAND market rose to $3.94bn up from $3.1bn Q2. Toshiba's sales were $1.4bn, up from $924m in Q2.
"Toshiba in the third quarter was able to capitalise on favourable NAND market conditions with its expanded capacity and high Average Selling Price (ASP)," said Michael Yang, senior analyst, memory and storage for iSuppli. "The company was able to expand its shipments. Furthermore, the company is the leader in production of three-bit-per-cell parts, which have lower manufacturing costs, thus improving profitability."
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Three-bit-per-cell flash allows the storage of more than one bit of data in each cell of a memory device, increasing its effective density.
Toshiba's three-bit-per-cell flash memories are particularly popular in consumer storage media such as USB, Secure Digital (SD) and microSD products.
Toshiba's revenue surge allowed its share of global NAND flash revenue to rise to 34.6%, up from 29.4 percent in the second quarter, solidifying its hold on the market's second-place position behind Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
NAND flash Average Selling Prices (ASPs) have grown this year as NAND suppliers slashed production in response to a market oversupply during the Q408 and Q109.
The overall NAND ASP rose by 18.5% in Q2 and by 40% in Q3.
ASPs are is projected to decline in Q4 by 2.9%.
"By shutting down some of their 200-millimeter production lines, the NAND flash suppliers were able to reverse the oversupply, boosting prices and expanding market revenue," said Yang.
Because of this, the NAND flash memory market represents a rare bright spot in what is expected to be a poor year for the global semiconductor market in 2009.
NAND flash actually is expected to achieve double-digit growth with a projected 16.4% rise in revenue for the year.
Global semiconductor revenue in 2009 is expected to decrease by 12.4%.