In 2006, Spansion's sales increased 25.1 percent, while the NOR market as a whole grew only 8.1 percent. With revenues of $2.58 billion and a market share of 30.4 percent, Spansion flashed by Intel, claiming the top position in the market. With sales shrinking by 9.9 percent to $2.28 billion, Intel fell back to a market share of 24.2 percent.

STMicroelectronics Inc. maintained its third position. With sales growth of 21.2 percent to $1.34 billion, the French-Italian company achieved a market share of 15.8 percent.

Despite having accomplished the highest growth (36.1 percent) in the market, Samsung was far behind the top three. The Korean company achieved revenues of $584 million equaling a market share of 6.9 percent.

Silicon Storage Technology Inc. (SST) was fifth with zero growth, sales of $329 million and a market share of 3.9 percent. All other vendors combined achieved sales of $1.61 billion, 3.2 percent less than in the year before.

"Although the NOR market expanded in 2006, it turned out to be a tough year for suppliers", explained iSuppli senior analyst Mark DeVoss. "While 2006 was not as brutal as 2005, when overall revenue declined by 15.5 percent, market conditions were still daunting."

The market was characterized by eroding average selling prices (ASPs), said DeVoss, with the mobile-phone sector experiencing the steepest price declines. Despite an overall market growth of 7.6 percent to $8.49 billion, most vendors suffered losses, the analyst said.

Consistent with recent voices about major strategic moves in the flash market, DeVoss pointed out that some consolidation of the NOR market is "inevitable". However, no hard facts exist that this will occur soon, he said.