According to IDC’s new version of Worldwide Semiconductor Applications Forecaster (SAF), in the year 2011, the global semiconductor revenues reached $301 billion, which is an increase of over 3.7%.
Device applications like notebook PCs, media tablets, smartphones, e-readers, datacenter servers, automotive infotainment, and wired and wireless communication infrastructure resulted in increased usage of semiconductors.
Over 100 semiconductor firms are tracked by IDC's SAF. More than 40 of these firms had consistent revenue growth that is higher than 5%, whereas a revenue decline by over 5% was experienced by equal number of firms.
Intel is still leading the market with overall semiconductor revenues of $51.8 billion last year. Samsung takes the second place with total semiconductor revenues of $29 billion. Renesas Electronics, Texas Instruments and Toshiba complete the list of top five chip suppliers. Broadcom, Micron, STMicro, Hynix, and Qualcomm are the next five suppliers. On the whole, the top 10 vendors captured 53% of the overall global semiconductor revenues, and the top 25 vendors represented 72% of the total semiconductor revenues for 2012.
A number of companies, including Apple, Intel, ON Semiconductor, Renesas Electronics, and Qualcomm, experienced strong and consistent revenue growth. Sequans, MegaChips, Icera, Osram, Nichia Chemical, Spredtrum Communications, Microsemi, CoreLogic, Cavium, Skyworks, and RobertBosch experienced substantial revenue growth in the wireless and communications, automotive, consumer, and industrial market sectors. Europe and Japan showed negative growth, while Americas and Asia/Pacific showed above average growth.
According to Mali Venkatesan, Research Manager at IDC, several acquisitions and mergers occurred in 2011 and this situation is likely to resume in 2012. The 2012 semiconductor revenue growth is likely to reach 6%-7%.