South Korea's chip giant SK hynix Inc. said Monday it has started supplying its up-to-date memory chip for LG Electronics Inc.'s new flagship smartphone lineup, in its latest push to grab a bigger market share with the new mobile component as it vies against home rival Samsung Electronics Co.

The low-power double data rate 4, an 8-gigabit dynamic random access memory mainly produced for mobile phones and digital cameras, has been installed in LG's G Flex 2, the curved-style handset that hit local shelves in late January, the chip maker said.

The LPDDR4, based on the 20-nanometer technology, can handle data at a twice a faster rate than the preceding LPDDR3 and is 30 percent more energy-efficient.

Such a move by SK hynix signals a new phase of competition in the next-generation mobile chip with home rival Samsung Electronics, as the world's top smartphone maker said in December last year it started mass production of the same-spec LPDDR4.

Industry experts assume that Apple's iPhone 6S and Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 are equipped with the LPDDR4.

Though the majority of the high-end smartphone market is still being supplied with the LPDDR3, analysts forecast it will soon be taken over by the LPDDR4.

Market tracker DRAMeXchange estimates Samsung will lift its production to 30 percent this year, while SK hynix will likely expand its share to 18 percent in the same period. The global production of the LPDDR4 stands roughly at just 1 percent as of end-2014.

With four of the new LPDDR4, a device can sport the highest density backed by 4 gigabyte DRAM chips, which will better support ultra high-definition video recording and continuous shooting of high-resolution images. (Yonhap)