According to IC Insights, the total NAND and NOR flash memory market is predicted to gain 2 percent to $30.4 billion in 2012. DRAM is estimated to reach $28.0 billion this year.

Flash will widen its lead over DRAM until 2017 and NANF Flash alone will outpace DRAM in 2013, IC Insights said. The market research firm said that flash will show the second highest growth rates among semiconductors and only trail the market growth rates for tablet processors and cell phone application processors.

Average revenue growth is forecast to hit 14 percent between 2012 and 2017 and reach $53.2 billion by 2017. DRAM sales will only grow by 9 percent annually during that time, IC Insights said.