NORWALK, CT -- Total worldwide semiconductor revenue fell 2.6% year-over-year to $299.9 billion in 2012, with more large vendors seeing sales fall than grow.

The top 25 semiconductor vendors' revenue declined slightly faster, at 2.8%, than the industry as a whole and accounted for almost the same portion of the industry's total revenue — 68.9% in 2012, compared with 69% in 2011, says research firm Gartner.

"The normal drivers of semiconductor industry growth — the computing, wireless, consumer electronics and automotive electronics sectors — all suffered serious disruption in 2012," said Steve Ohr, research director at Gartner. "Even the industrial/medical, wired communications and military/aerospace sectors ordinarily less affected by changes in consumer sentiment suffered severe declines in semiconductor consumption. Excess inventory levels also remained a growth inhibitor.”

Intel recorded a 3.1% revenue decline, due to falls in PC shipments. However, it retained the No. 1 market share position for the 21^st year in a row. Intel's share was 16.4% in 2012, down from 16.5% in 2011.

Samsung, the No. 2 vendor, was held back by weak DRAM growth in 2012, as well as a dilution of the NAND flash market, although its overall revenue increased from smartphone application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and application-specific standard products (ASSPs).

Qualcomm's semiconductor revenue increased 31.8% in 2012 to $13.2 billion. The company climbed from No. 6 in 2011 to No. 3 and now trails only Intel and Samsung. Qualcomm was the fastest-growing semiconductor company in the top 25 and continues to benefit from its leading position in wireless semiconductors.

Texas Instruments retained its fourth-place ranking, although Toshiba slipped to fifth place in semiconductor shipments.

Table 1. Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors, Worldwide, 2012 ($millions)

Source: Gartner (April 2013)