Samsung Electronics topped the global NAND flash market in the second quarter of 2014, data showed Friday, on the back of increased demand from Chinese smartphone makers who have been raising their profiles in the global market.

The market share for the South Korean electronics giant in NAND flash reached 30.8 percent in the April-June period, up 0.8 percentage point from a quarter earlier, the data compiled by industry tracker DRAMeXchange showed.

Along with dynamic random access memory chips, NAND flash memory chips are used in smartphones, tablet PCs and other mobile devices to save data when they are turned off.

In contrast, Japan’s Toshiba, which was the first to invent NAND flash products in 1987, saw its share fall 0.9 percentage point over the cited period to 20.5 percent.

U.S. SanDisk held a comparable figure of 19.7 percent, followed by Micron Technology with 12.9 percent and SK hynix, another South Korean firm, with 9.5 percent. (Yonhap)