Gartner: Semiconductor sales fell 5% in 2008
Seven of top 10 chip suppliers had revenue losses
By Jim Carbone -- Purchasing, 4/8/2009 3:43:00 PM
Worldwide semiconductor revenue declined 5.4% to $255 billion in 2008 because of a steep drop in demand in the fourth quarter and the economic downturn. According to researcher Gartner, seven of the top 10 semiconductor suppliers suffered revenue losses in 2008, including Intel, Samsung, Toshiba and Texas Instruments.
“While sales held up fairly well in the first half of 2008 fourth quarter sales deteriorated quickly, causing revenue growth to go into negative territory,” says Peter Middleton, principal research analyst at Gartner. “With the market heavily impacted by the recession, we can expect considerable market consolidation going forward.”
Market leader Intel suffered a 0.5% decline in sales, but maintained its market leader status. Intel had $33.8 billion in sales. Samsung, the second largest chip supplier, suffered a 15% revenue decline as DRAM and NAND flash memory experienced sharp prices declines. In 2008 its revenue totaled $17.3 billion.
The best performer among the 2008 top 10 was Qualcomm. It grew revenue 15.3% to $6.4 billion. The company had strong growth for the first three quarters of the year. However, Qualcomm felt the impact of the economic downturn in the fourth quarter of 2008 as carriers and OEMs reduced their inventory of code division multiple access (CDMA)-based devices and chipsets, says Gartner.
Semiconductor industry recovery has begun
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