Total worldwide semiconductor revenue reached $306.8 billion in 2011, up $5.4 billion, or 1.8 percent from 2010, according to Gartner.
Gartner said the top 25 semiconductor vendors' revenue appeared to grow faster, at 3.1 percent, than the industry as a whole and accounted for a larger portion of the industry's total revenue - 69.2 percent in 2011, compared with 68.3 percent in 2010. However, about half of this growth was the result of mergers and acquisitions.
"Of the major device segments, microcomponents performed best in 2011 after a relative underperformance in 2010," said Peter Middleton, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Within microcomponents, the subcategory that really drove this performance was compute microprocessors, which grew 14.2 percent year over year as a result of strong average selling prices (ASPs). This was driven both by servers and PCs, with the PC microprocessor market strongly benefiting from graphics integration."
Intel recorded a 20.7 percent revenue gain and held the No. 1 market share position for the twentieth consecutive year. 2011 marked Intel's highest-ever market share at 16.5 percent. Its previous high was back in 1998, when it controlled 16.3 percent share.
Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue, Worldwide, 2011
(Millions of Dollars)
| Rank 2010 | Rank 2011 | Vendor | 2010 Revenue | 2011 Revenue | 2010-2011 Growth | 2011 Market Share |
|---|
| 1 | 1 | Intel1 | 41,988 | 50,669 | 20.7% | 16.5% |
| 2 | 2 | Samsung Electronics | 27,094 | 27,366 | 1.0% | 8.9% |
| 3 | 3 | Toshiba | 12,360 | 11,769 | -4.8% | 3.8% |
| 4 | 4 | Texas Instruments2 | 11,827 | 11,754 | -0.6% | 3.8% |
| 6 | 5 | Renesas Electronics3 | 10,204 | 10,650 | 4.4% | 3.5% |
| 9 | 6 | Qualcomm4 | 7,204 | 9,998 | 38.8% | 3.3% |
| 5 | 7 | STMicroelectronics | 10,262 | 9,635 | -6.1% | 3.1% |
| 7 | 8 | Hynix Semiconductor | 9,884 | 9,388 | -5.0% | 3.1% |
| 8 | 9 | Micron Technology | 8,224 | 7,643 | -7.1% | 2.5% |
| 10 | 10 | Broadcom5 | 6,604 | 7,160 | 8.4% | 2.3% |
| | | Others | 155,807 | 150,811 | -3.2% | 49.1% |
| | | Total Market | 301,458 | 306,843 | 1.8% | 100% |
1Infineon's 2011 revenue excludes its wireless division, which was sold to Intel, effective in the first quarter of 2011.
2Texas Instruments acquired National Semiconductor in September 2011. The estimated calendar third and fourth quarters of National's 2011 revenue are attributed to Texas Instruments in 2011.
3Renesas Electronics' 2010 revenue excludes Renesas Technology's first-quarter-of-2010 revenue.
4Qualcomm's 2011 revenue includes three quarters of Atheros' revenue.
5Broadcom acquired Provigent in the second quarter of 2011.
Source: Gartner (April 2012)
Samsung, the No. 2 vendor, was held back by DRAM weakness in 2011, so it was unable to close the gap with Intel. Toshiba and Texas Instruments retained their third- and fourth-place rankings respectively, while Renesas Electronics moved into the top five during its first full year as a combined company.
Elsewhere in the top 10, sixth-placed Qualcomm's semiconductor business increased 39 percent in 2011 and nearly reached $10 billion in revenue. Qualcomm continued to take share in the rapidly growing smartphone market, and it was one of the fastest-growing semiconductor companies in 2011. At No. 10, Broadcom had a solid year, outperforming the overall semiconductor market, with particular strength in the mobile and wireless division, which recorded another year of double-digit growth.
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 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 and choosing their customers wisely.Market leaders in Gartner's Relative Industry Performance index include Qualcomm (which grew 17 percent better than expected), Hynix (which grew 13 percent better than expected) and Infineon (which grew 12 percent better than expected). Disappointments in the Relative Industry Performance index include Panasonic, Elpida Memory and MediaTek.
