FRANKFURT - Global sales of NAND flash semiconductors, used in USB flash drives and memory cards, grew by 37 percent in the third quarter to $4.2 billion, research firm iSuppli said in a statement on Thursday.

But iSuppli said a growth streak fuelled by demand for consumer electronics including Apple's iPod line would end this quarter, when average NAND selling prices would drop by 18 percent as output increases faster than demand.

South Korea's Hynix achieved the strongest growth in the third quarter, with its NAND revenue rising 79 percent quarter-on-quarter to $806 million. Its 19-percent market share placed it third in global rankings in the quarter.

Leading NAND supplier Samsung Electronics saw its market share fall to 40 percent from 45 percent a quarter earlier, with the amount of memory it shipped up just 4 percent.

Second-placed Toshiba maintained its market share of 27 percent, and the top three suppliers had 87 percent of the market between them, iSuppli said.

Flash chips are in increasing demand as mobile phones, consumer electronics and computers handle more video and audio. Prices for standard DRAM computer memory chips are falling far faster than those for flash as DRAM is largely commoditised.