The price difference between contract and spot prices expanded from 0.3 percent in Q2 to 14.7 percent in the third quarter, that is from $2.13 against $2.12 seen in the second quarter of the year to $2.07 against $1.76 in Q3.

DRAMeXchange estimates global market for DRAMs will reach $23.2 billion this year, down a staggering 24.7 percent on that achieved last year. It suggests the supply bit growth rate will touch 67 percent, but average selling prices will plummet by 55 percent.

Global own brand (that is excluding OEM portion) revenues for Q3 were $6.35 billion, down 2.4 percent on the previous quarter.

Different memory manufacturers were impacted according to the proportion they relied on spot versus contract sales. A survey of the major manufacturers revealed that some, such as Taiwanese firm Nanya, did better in revenue terms than expected because of a shift by its partner Inotera to manufacturing on 12-inch wafers, say the researchers.

Samsung is said to have taken a leading 23.9 percent share of the global market in Q3, down by 9.9 percent on the previous quarter. Nanya, in sixth spot, was the only company to have increased revenues significantly, up from $266 million to $350 million, or up by 31.6 percent, and now has 5.5 percent of the market, up from 4.1 percent in Q2.

Powerchip recorded the biggest quarter-on-quarter decline, down 16.3 percent to $254 million, relegating it to seventh place.

Qimonda managed a 2.2 percent increase in revenues, to $613 million, for a 9.6 percent share of the global market, and occupies fifth position. Hynix remains in second slot for Q3, with a market share of 20.5 percent, followed by Elpida (16 percent) and Micron Technology (12.3 percent).

Micron's share is forecast to increase significantly next year following its acquisition of Inotera and its licensing deal with Nanya.

Analysis by DRAMeXchange suggests Samsung was the only player in the DRAMs business that made money in the third quarter