Intel continues semiconductor market dominance

CHIP GIANT Intel continued to dominate the worldwide semiconductor market during 2005, according to a report from iSuppli.

More than that, Intel, along with Samsung and Texas Instruments hit growth levels exceeding the average. According to the report, global semiconductor sales hit $237.1 billion during 2005, a 3.6 per cent leap compared to the previous year, and a percentage exceeded by the giants.

Intel hit double digit growth, with revenues up by 13 per cent, claimed iSuppli, while its market share rose to 15 per cent, compared to 13.8 per cent the previous year.

The microprocessor segment grew by 16.1 per cent in 2005, the report said. However, in that segment it lost 2.9 percentage points to AMD, said Dale Ford, VP of market intelligence for iSuppli. AMD has fallen in the league table to 15th after it spun off Spansion. However, if Spansion and AMD were considered as one entity, its ranking would be number eight. Spansion is ranked by iSuppli as number 24 in 2005.

While 2004 was hardly a glittering gem in Intel's crown for NOR memory, in 2005 it performed better than any other player in that segment, which declined 15.3 per cent during the year. Some of Intel's competitors saw revenues decline by as much as 50 per cent, said Ford.

Tables below supplied courtesy of iSuppli. Dollar amounts represent millions.

2004 Rank	2005 Rank	Company	2005 Revenue	2004 Revenue	Percent Change	Percent of Total	Cumulative Percentage
1	1	Intel	$35,466	$31,396	13.0%	15.0%	15.0%
2	2	Samsung	$17,210	$15,759	9.2%	7.3%	22.2%
3	3	Texas Instruments	$10,745	$10,225	5.1%	4.5%	26.7%
7	4	Toshiba	$9,077	$8,752	3.7%	3.8%	30.6%
6	5	STMicroelectronics	$8,881	$8,760	1.4%	3.7%	34.3%
4	6	Infineon	$8,297	$9,180	-9.6%	3.5%	37.8%
5	7	Renesas	$8,266	$9,000	-8.2%	3.5%	41.3%
8	8	NEC Electronics	$5,710	$6,503	-12.2%	2.4%	43.7%
9	9	Philips Semi	$5,646	$5,692	-0.8%	2.4%	46.1%
10	10	Freescale Semi	$5,598	$5,519	1.4%	2.4%	48.5%
14	11	Hynix	$5,560	$4,606	20.7%	2.3%	50.8%
13	12	Micron Technology	$4,775	$4,649	2.7%	2.0%	52.8%
15	13	Sony	$4,574	$4,299	6.4%	1.9%	54.7%
12	14	Matsushita Electric	$4,131	$4,669	-11.5%	1.7%	56.5%
11	15	AMD	$3,917	$5,108	-23.3%	1.7%	58.1%
17	16	Qualcomm	$3,457	$3,211	7.7%	1.5%	59.6%
16	17	Sharp Electronics	$3,266	$3,488	-6.4%	1.4%	61.0%
18	18	Rohm	$2,909	$2,849	2.1%	1.2%	62.2%
20	19	IBM Micro	$2,792	$2,503	11.5%	1.2%	63.4%
22	20	Broadcom	$2,671	$2,400	11.3%	1.1%	64.5%
Other Companies			$84,191	$80,241	4.9%	35.5%	100.0%
Total Revenue			$237,139	$228,809	3.6%	100.0%

And what about the fabless companies? Isuppli figures below show Qualcomm continues to lead the pack. µ

2004 Rank	2005 Rank	Company	2005 Revenue	2004 Revenue	Percent Change	Percent of Total	Cumulative Percentage
1	1	Qualcomm	$3,457	$3,211	7.7%	10.1%	10.1%
2	2	Broadcom	$2,671	$2,400	11.3%	7.8%	17.9%
4	3	nVidia	$2,079	$1,680	23.8%	6.1%	24.0%
3	4	ATI	$2,028	$1,913	6.0%	5.9%	30.0%
5	5	Xilinx	$1,645	$1,586	3.7%	4.8%	34.8%
Other Companies			$22,262	$20,135	10.6%	65.2%	100.0%
Total Revenue			$34,142	$30,925	10.4%	100.0%