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 21st 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)
NORWALK, CT -- Combined shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones worldwide are on pace to total 2.4 billion units in 2013, up 9% over 2012, according to Gartner.
BANNOCKBURN, IL – While North American manufacturing begins another slow recovery and leading indicators point to modest business expansion in the coming months, the PCB industry has not yet felt the effects of this turnaround, says IPC.
