Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) emerged as the leader in the semiconductor market worldwide with a 15.2% market share in 2013, according to the latest report released by Gartner, Inc (NYSE:IT), a global information technology research and advisory company.
Intel’s revenue in semiconductor
The research firm estimated that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s revenue in semiconductor for the year was $48.03 billion, down by -2.2% from $49.08 billion in 2012. The decline was due to the weak demand for PCs, but the company managed to maintain its leading position for the 22nd consecutive year.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (LON:BC94) (KRX:005935) obtained the second position with a 9.4% market share and estimated revenue of $29.64 billion, up by 3.6% from $28.62 billion last year. Qualcomm, Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) ranked third with a 5.5% market share and estimated revenue of $17.27 billion, an increase of 31.1% from $13.17 billion a year ago.
The revenue of the semiconductor industry worldwide increased by 5.2% to $315.4 billion this year based on the preliminary results recorded by the research firm. The combined revenue of the top 25 semiconductor vendors increased 6.2%, better than the rest of the market with 2.9% revenue growth. Gartner Inc (NYSE:IT) explained that the growth was due to the concentration of memory vendors.
DRAM led the revenue growth
In a statement, Andrew Norwood, vice president of research at Gartner Inc (NYSE:IT) said, “After a weak start to 2013 due to excess inventory, revenue growth strengthened in the second and third quarters before leveling off in the fourth quarter. Memory, in particular DRAM, led this growth, not due to strong demand, but rather weak supply growth.”
Norwood said one of the headwinds faced by semiconductor vendors was the declining production of PCs. He also observed signs of saturation in the premium smartphone market and growth is shifting towards less-expensive, entry-level, and mid-range smartphone models.
“These demand headwinds become very visible when looking at revenue growth outside of memory, where the rest of the semiconductor market could only muster 0.4 percent growth,” said Norwood. He added that memory market for DRAM starter to recover by the end of 2012, and it had a strong rebound this year.
Gartner Inc (NYSE:IT) found that SK Hynix Inc (KRX:000660) and Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) gained significantly from the strong memory market with 43.2% and 70.8% growth rate respectively. SK Hynix ranked 4th with 4.1% market share and estimated revenue of $12.83 billion, up from $8.98 billion last year while Micron Technology ranked 5th with 3.7% market share and estimated revenue of $11.81 billion, up from $6.91 billion a year earlier.
