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Articles:

1.Global chip revenues down for second straight year in 2009, says Gartne/ DigiTimes

2.Tough 2009 creates winners, losers in chip vendor ranking/ EETimes

3.Surprise vendor lands on NAND rankings / EETimes

 

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1. Global chip revenues down for second straight year in 2009, says Gartne

 

Press release; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 30 March 2010]

Worldwide semiconductor revenues reached US$228.4 billion in 2009, down US$26.8 billion, or 10.5%, from 2008, according to Gartner. The drop also marked the first time the industry has seen two consecutive years of revenue declines.

However, the chip industry performed much better than expected in the second half of 2009, setting the stage for strong 2010 growth against weak comparables, said Gartner.

"After an unprecedented decline in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, sequential quarterly revenue growth for the industry overall was very strong in the last three quarters of 2009," said Peter Middleton, principal research analyst at Gartner. "As a result, 2009 performance overall was much milder than initially feared in the aftermath of the financial crisis."

Intel held the No. 1 position for the 18th consecutive year in 2009. Its market share grew from 13.6% in 2008 to 14.6%, though revenues declined US$1.6 billion. This performance was primarily due to the relative strength of the PC market, mobiles in particular, which sold well despite the recession.

Samsung Electronics was one of the few companies to see a revenue increase in 2009, Gartner finds. Part of the reason for this was that its main product lines, DRAM and NAND flash, had already seen strong declines in 2008, causing the vendors to quickly react to 2009 conditions by adjusting supply. This forced up pricing substantially through the year for both product areas and, combined with Samsung's technology lead and strong financial position, resulted in revenue growth.

Like Samsung, Hynix Semiconductor also enjoyed revenue growth in 2009. For Hynix, the growth came from the DRAM market, where it was able to gain share and increase revenue in a market that saw revenue decline.

Infineon Technologies had the largest decline due to the bankruptcy of its Qimonda memory business and the divestiture of its wireline communications unit. When these two business units are removed from the equation, the remainder of Infineon declined 16.1% overall, which was roughly in line with its direct peers.

MediaTek led Gartner's relative industry performance (RIP) ranking in 2009. MediaTek (No. 18 overall) was the strongest-performing wireless semiconductor vendor with 42.5% growth compared with 2008. The company benefited from strong unit growth in the Chinese gray market but also expanded its design wins with tier-1 vendors, including LG and Motorola.

Elpida Memory (No. 16 overall) was once again the No. 2 vendor in Gartner's RIP ranking. It was able to gain share in the DRAM market because its capacity growth was almost twice that of the industry as it took more production from its joint venture production company Rexchip Electronics. This additional capacity allowed Elpida to pick up market share from the bankrupt Qimonda.

Worldwide Top-10 semiconductor vendors by revenues, 2009 (US$m)

2009 rank

2008 rank

Company

2009 revenues

2009 market share

2008 revenues

Y/Y

1

1

Intel

33,253

14.6%

34,814

(4.5%)

2

2

Samsung

17,686

7.7%

17,391

1.7%

3

3

Toshiba

9,604

4.2%

10,601

(9.4%)

4

4

Texas Instruments

9,142

4.0%

10,593

(13.7%)

5

5

STMicroelectronics

8,510

3.7%

10,270

(17.1%)

6

8

Qualcomm

6,409

2.8%

6,477

(1.0%)

7

9

Hynix

6,035

2.6%

6,010

0.4%

8

7

Renesas

5,670

2.5%

7,081

(19.9%)

9

11

AMD

5,157

2.3%

5,298

(2.7%)

10

6

Infineon (incl. Qimonda)

4,682

2.1%

8,224

(43.1%)

Others

122,223

53.5%

138,375

(11.7%)

Total

228,371

100.0%

255,134

(10.5%)

Source: Gartner, compiled by Digitimes, March 2010

 

 

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2. Tough 2009 creates winners, losers in chip vendor ranking

Peter Clarke
(03/29/2010 9:25 AM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224200567
 
LONDON — Qualcomm, Hynix and Advanced Micro Devices each climbed two places in a top ten ranking of chip vendors by 2009 revenue provided by market research company Gartner Inc. (Stamford, Conn.).

The ranking was qualitatively the same as that produced by Gartner in December 2009, but the revenue numbers and market share percentages have changed to reflect corrections applied by Gartner to its individual company and total market data.

The degree to which top-ranked Intel, second-placed Samsung and third-placed Toshiba increased market share from 2008 at the expense of fourth-placed Texas Instruments and fifth-placed STMicroelectronics, was increased.

The winners in the ranking are still Qualcomm, who jumped two places from eighth to sixth, Hynix Semiconductor which rose to seventh from ninth and AMD, which came back into the top ten, ranked at number nine. The losers were Renesas Technology Corp., which dropped a place to eighth, and Infineon, which fell from sixth in 2008 to tenth in 2009.

Intel held the number one position for the 18th consecutive year. Gartner now thinks Intel increased its market share to 14.6 percent in 2009 from 13.6 percent, despite a $1.6 billion revenue decline. This performance was primarily due to the relative strength of the PC market, mobiles in particular, which sold well despite the recession.

Samsung Electronics was one of the few companies to see a revenue increase in 2009; part of the reason was that its main product lines — DRAM and NAND flash — had already seen strong declines in 2008, causing the vendors to quickly react to 2009 conditions by adjusting supply. This situation forced up pricing substantially through the year for both product areas and, combined with Samsung's technology lead and strong financial position, resulted in revenue growth.

Hynix Semiconductor, like its rival Samsung, saw revenue growth. For Hynix, the growth came from the DRAM market, in which it was able to gain share and increase revenue in a market that saw revenue decline.

 


Click on image to enlarge.

Infineon's revenue decline of 43.1 percent was due to the bankruptcy of its Qimonda memory business and the divestiture of its wireline communications into a company called Lantiq. On like comparison basis Infineon sales declined 16.1 percent, roughly inline with is peers, but still behind the overall market which Gartner estimates fell 10.5 percent to $228.4 billion in 2009,

"This is the first time the industry has seen two consecutive years of revenue declines. However, the industry performed much better than expected in the second half, setting the stage for strong 2010 growth against weak comparables," said Gartner analyst Peter Middleton.

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3. Surprise vendor lands on NAND rankings

Mark LaPedus
(04/01/2010 5:18 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224201124
 
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- In the NAND flash rankings for 2009, there is a surprise vendor on the list: SanDisk Corp.

According to Web-Feet Research, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. remained the leader in NAND flash in terms of share, followed in order by Toshiba Corp. and then SanDisk. SanDisk was ahead of Micron, Hynix and Intel.

In the rankings from other research houses, SanDisk is not included in the list. SanDisk and its partner, Toshiba, are combined in some instances.

Web-Feet Research reports shipments from 17 flash manufacturers. Both the Toshiba and SanDisk shipments are calculated separately from each other and do not include any portion of the other's component revenues.

The overall flash memory market hit $20.8 billion in 2009, an increase of 2% from 2008, according to the firm.

Most of the increases came from the NAND flash market, which increased 16 percent to $16.1 billion in 2009, according to the firm. However, the NOR fell 27.9 percent to $4.72 billion last year.

Most market research companies, as well as WSTS/SIA have estimated the 2009 NAND flash memory components market at around $14.8-$15 billion. This $1.1 billion difference in the NAND market sizing stems from differences in not including the component shipments from SanDisk, who has increased its OEM and branded NAND component shipments in 2009, according to Web-Feet.

 

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