Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Declined 2.6 Percent in 2012, According to Final Results by Gartner
Intel Retained the No. 1 Position for the 21st Year in a Row
SINGAPORE, April 4, 2013 — Total worldwide semiconductor revenue reached $299.9 billion in 2012, down 2.6 percent from 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. With the overall semiconductor market decline, the number of vendors that declined among the top 25 outnumbered those that grew.
Gartner said the top 25 semiconductor vendors’ revenue declined slightly faster, at 2.8 percent, than the industry as a whole and accounted for almost the same portion of the industry’s total revenue — 68.9 percent in 2012, compared with 69.0 percent in 2011.
“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, Ohr said.
Intel recorded a 3.1 percent 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 percent in 2012, down from 16.5 percent in 2011.
Table 1. Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue, Worldwide, 2012 (Millions of Dollars)
Rank 2011 | Rank 2012 | Vendor | 2011 Revenue | 2012 Revenue | 2011-2012 Growth (%) | 2012 Market Share (%) |
1 | 1 | Intel | 50,669 | 49,089 | -3.1 | 16.4 |
2 | 2 | Samsung Electronics | 27,764 | 28,622 | 3.1 | 9.5 |
6 | 3 | Qualcomm | 9,998 | 13,177 | 31.8 | 4.4 |
4 | 4 | Texas Instruments | 11,754 | 11,111 | -5.5 | 3.7 |
3 | 5 | Toshiba | 11,769 | 10,610 | -9.8 | 3.5 |
5 | 6 | Renesas Electronics | 10,650 | 9,152 | -14.1 | 3.1 |
8 | 7 | SK Hynix | 9,388 | 8,965 | -4.5 | 3.0 |
7 | 8 | STMicroelectronics | 9,635 | 8,415 | -12.7 | 2.8 |
10 | 9 | Broadcom | 7,160 | 7,846 | 9.6 | 2.6 |
9 | 10 | Micron Technology | 7,643 | 6,917 | -9.5 | 2.3 |
Others | 151,343 | 146,008 | -3.5 | 48.7 | ||
Total Market | 307,773 | 299,912 | -2.6 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (April 2013)
Samsung, the No. 2 vendor, was held back by weak DRAM bit 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 percent 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.
Vendor Relative Industry Performance
Market share tables by themselves give a good indication of which vendors did well or badly during a year, but they do not tell the whole story. More often than not, a strong or weak performance by a vendor is a result of the overall market growth of the device areas that the vendor participates in. Gartner’s Relative Industry Performance (RIP) index measures the difference between industry-specific growth for a company and actual growth, showing which are transforming their businesses by growing share or moving into new markets.
Market leaders in Gartner’s Relative Industry Performance index include Qualcomm (which grew 18.2 percent better than expected). The only other company to exceed expectation by more than 10 percent was NXP. On the other hand, three companies underperformed expectations by more than 10 percent: Freescale, STMicroelectronics and AMD.
Gartner’s annual semiconductor market share analysis examines and ranks the worldwide and regional revenue for more than 310 semiconductor suppliers in 64 separate product categories and eight major market categories. It serves as a benchmark for semiconductor industry performance, as well as a means for individual companies to assess their revenue performance against their competitors’.
Additional information is provided in the Gartner report “Market Share Analysis: Semiconductor Revenue, Worldwide, 2012.” The report provides data and analysis for the top 25 vendors in 2012. The report is available on Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=2393115.
About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner in over 13,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, and has 5,500 associates, including 1,400 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.
