Samsung Electronics Co. dominated the global market for smartphone memory chips in the first half of the year, a report showed Thursday.

In terms of revenue, Samsung maintained its top position in the smartphone memory market with a 49 percent share in the first six months of the year, according to a report from industry tracker Strategy Analytics.

Samsung was followed by its smaller South Korean rival SK hynix Inc. and US chipmaker Micron Technology Inc.

By sector, Samsung had a revenue share of 54 percent in the smartphone DRAM market in the first half, followed by SK hynix with 24 percent and Micron with 20 percent, according to the report.

In the smartphone NAND flash market, Samsung registered a revenue share of 43 percent, followed by Japan's Kioxia Holdings Corp. with 22 percent and SK hynix with 17 percent, the report showed.

In the first half of the year, the global market for smartphone memory chips had a combined revenue of $19.2 billion, according to Strategy Analytics. For the second quarter alone, the market saw a combined revenue of $9.7 billion, up 3 percent from a year earlier.

"The smartphone memory market observed growth in revenue despite the headwinds in demand," said Jeffrey Mathews, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics. "The growth was fueled by the shipment of high-density memory chips and recovering chip prices."

Strategy Analytics predicted that the smartphone memory market will continue to see an increase in demand due to "the seasonal factors in the smartphone market, along with rising momentum for memory chips with higher storage content and faster memory speeds."

However, the market researcher said the US sanctions on China's Huawei Technologies Co. could negatively impact the memory chip vendors. (Yonhap)