Samsung Electronics Co., one of the largest producers of computer chips, controlled more than 40 percent of the global solid state drive market this year, outpacing rivals like Intel Corp. and SanDisk Corp., industry data showed Sunday.

According to market researchers IHS and DRAMeXchange, Samsung's market share hit a record 41 percent, 2.6 times larger than its closest rival Intel, which held 16 percent.

The two companies were trailed by SanDisk Corp. with 10 percent control, while Micron Technology Inc. and Toshiba made the top five list.

In 2014, Samsung's share stood at 34 percent with Intel and SanDisk sharing 17 percent and 16 percent of the market, respectively.

SSD are more expensive than traditional memory storage systems but, because they use NAND flash memory, have four times the read and write speeds. This trait considerably reduces the booting time for users. It is steadily replacing hard disk drives on the market.

DRAMeXchange predicts that SSDs will be used on some 30 percent of all notebook computers in 2016.

IHS said Samsung's ability to be the first in the world to mass produce 3-D V-NAND helped it pull ahead of competitors.

Industry insiders said that SanDisk, which is indirectly controlled by Chinese capital through Western Digital, has started to use 3-D NAND in its products, but it has not been able to reduce the technology gap with the South Korean tech giant.

They added that while SSD prices have affected demand in the past, rise in demand and more output has caused prices to fall for four straight quarters.

Data showed that compared with 2014, SSD prices have fallen about 10 percent this year. (Yonhap)