Samsung starts to cream the chip opposition

MIGHTY CHAEBOL Samsung has lifted its revenues for consumer chips by 84.2 per cent in just the space of a year.

According to a report from market research firm iSuppli, Samsung's revenue rose to $2.1 billion in 2004, up from $1.1 billion in the year before.

And that catapulted it from 10th place in 2003 to number four in 2004.

That, said the iSuppli analysts, meant Samsung Electronics is now in the same league as the Japanese powerhouses Toshiba, Sony and Matsushita.

The rise and rise of Samsung is due to supplying memory chips to the consumer electronics semiconductor segment, said iSuppli. It held a "commanding lead" in sales of chips for MP3 players, and also made gains in grabbing market share for digital TVs, set top boxes, and still cameras. µ

Top 10 semi suppliers for CE
market in 2004. Revenues in millions of
US dollars. Table courtesy iSuppli

2003 Rank	2004 Rank	Company	2003 Revenue	2004 Revenue	% Change	% of Total
1	1	Toshiba	4429	5163	16.6%	16.5%
2	2	Sony	3073	3768	22.6%	12.0%
3	3	Matsushita	2261	2708	19.8%	8.6%
10	4	Samsung	1142	2103	84.2%	6.7%
4	5	Renesas	1921	2067	7.6%	6.6%
6	6	ST Micro	1419	1868	31.6%	6.0%
7	7	NEC	1398	1626	16.3%	5.2%
5	8	Philips	1532	1560	1.8%	5.0%
9	9	Rohm	1181	1377	16.6%	4.4%
8	10	Sanyo	1274	1147	-10.0%	3.7%