The global market share gap between Samsung and Intel is expected to be narrowed from 5.4 percentage points this year, according to iSuppli. The research firm expects Samsung to record US$33.4 billion in sales this year, up 7.0 percent from the previous year, retaining its number 2 position in the global market with a market share of up to 10.5 percent. Samsung's chip sales surpassed the US$30 billion mark for the first time to reach US$31.2 billion last year.

The world's #1 player Intel is forecast to see its market share down from 15.7 percent last year (US$47.4 billion) to 14.8 percent this year. This year's revenue in chip sales is also predicted to decline 1.0 percent from last year's US$47.4 billion.

This means that the gap between Samsung and Intel will be narrowed from 5.4 percentage points last year to 4.3 percentage points this year.

Samsung's strong performance could be attributable to the increased sales of its flagship products including Mobile DRAM, NAND Flash memory chips, mobile application processors, and image sensors, with the smartphone market booming. On the contrary, Intel, whose flagship business is microprocessors, saw meager growth amid a slow PC market.

Sales of SK Hynix are expected to skyrocket 48.7 percent from last year's US$8.9 billion to US$13.3 billion, largely due to the price rise of DRAM chips. The price rise will push SK Hynix's market share to 4.2 percent this year from 3.0 percent last year, along with increasing its ranking from 7th to 5th place.

The global chip market is forecast to reach US$317 billion this year, up 4.9 percent from last year's US$302 billion.