Samsung Electronics Co. expanded its dominance in the global smartphone memory market in 2020, a report showed Tuesday, as it represented nearly half of the industry.

Samsung, the world's largest supplier of DRAM and NAND chips, accounted for 49 percent of the global smartphone memory market last year, up 2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to a report from industry tracker Strategy Analytics.

Samsung was followed by its smaller South Korean rival SK hynix Inc. with a 21 percent share and US chipmaker Micron Technology Inc. with a 13 percent share.

The worldwide smartphone memory market in 2020 grew 4 percent on-year to $41 billion, rebounding from oversupply of chips that led to a revenue decline in 2019.

By sector, Samsung had a revenue share of 55 percent in the smartphone DRAM market last year, up from 50.9 percent a year earlier.

SK hynix's presence plunged from 29.2 percent to 24 percent over the cited period, while Micron's share increased slightly from 18.5 percent to 20 percent.

The overall smartphone DRAM revenue had marginal growth of 1 percent, with high demand of multi-chip package (MCP)-based DRAM chips, Strategy Analytics added.

In the smartphone NAND flash market, Samsung registered a revenue share of 42 percent, followed by Japan's Kioxia Holdings Corp. with 22 percent and SK hynix with 17 percent.

The global NAND flash market for smartphones saw a revenue growth of 8 percent year-on-year, Strategy Analytics said, due to robust demand for high-capacity universal flash storage-based NAND flash chips. (Yonhap)