The global market for flash memory has seen its revenues increase by 25.5% between the second and third quarters of 2009. The final value approaching the $ 4 billion, against "only" 3.1 billion the previous quarter. Toshiba is the winner of the sector, with an increase of 47.5% to reach a turnover of 1.4 billion. According to iSuppli, the founder Nippon has increased its production to support the request, and MLC chips 3BPC (3 bits per cell) allowed it to increase its profitability. Toshiba is still in second place behind Korea's Samsung, which rose 15.5% to $ 1.55 billion in sales.

Prices of flash memory have risen sharply in recent months, thanks to the crisis. A year ago, overproduction had driven down prices and the recovery in demand has pushed up, which obviously benefited the various NAND suppliers. The increase in the average price was 18.5% in the second quarter and 40% in the third! iSuppli believes that prices should remain stable or drop slightly this quarter. In conclusion the founders of SLC and MLC chips have saved their year 2009, which should result in an increase in total turnover of approximately 16.4%, where the overall market for semiconductors is expected to drop 12.4%.

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