Top 10 OEMs buy fewer chips but still account for 35% of overall IC market
By James Carbone -- Purchasing, 3/12/2009 2:00:00 AM
The 10 biggest original equipment manufacturers bought about $91.6 billion of semiconductors in 2008 or about 35% of all semiconductors purchased by companies, according to researcher Gartner.
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However, the amount of chips purchased by OEMs declined from about $95.3 billion in 2007 because of weaker demand and falling chip prices in 2008.
"For the electronics and semiconductor industries, 2008 started on a positive note but ended with a whimper as the global recession limited demand," says Alfonso Velosa, research director at Gartner.
Hewlett Packard was the top semiconductor purchaser, buying $16.5 billion of chips, the same as 2007, says Gartner. As the top PC maker, HP was the leading consumer of microprocessors and memory chips.
Cell phone manufacturer Nokia was second, spending $12.2 billion, down slightly from $12.3 billion last year. Nokia in 2008 continued to change its semiconductor sourcing strategy, opting to buy far more standard parts, according to Velosa.
"Nokia is shifting away from designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for its handsets to using off-the-shelf application-specific standard products (ASSPs)," he says. Since Nokia is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, the shift will to have a major impact on the semiconductor market.
Computer maker Dell purchased $10.5 billion of chips in 2008 compared to $11.7 billion in the previous year.
Apple, buoyed by sales of its popular iPhone and iPod devices, increased its spending by about 19% from $5.9 billion in 2007 to $7 billion.
"Apple again demonstrated how innovative use of technology and a keen understanding of consumer requirements can lead to strong growth in revenue and in semiconductor consumption," Velosa says.
Toshiba also increased its chip spending, buying about $6.2 billion of semiconductors in 2008, compared to $5.5 billion in 2007. That a 12% increase.
Computer manufacturer Lenovo's chip spending dropped the most of the top 10 as its semiconductor purchases fell 17% to $5.8 billion.
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