Top ten OEMS buy most of the chips

THE PINSTRIPED BEANCOUNTERS at Gartner have reported that the top ten OEMS used a third of the chips made in 2009.

The purveyor of CIO arse-covering white papers and research opinions on all sides of most IT questions said that the top ten OEMs bought $77.3 billion worth of semiconductors last year.

Worldwide semiconductor device revenue reached $226 billion in 2009. This was down 11.4 per cent from 2008 but, according to the gartered silk-stockinged Gartner, even in severe market conditions the chipmakers were tied to the leading-brand electronic equipment and design manufacturers.

The analysts said that the supply chains of the electronics industry have become more complicated and this has made the OEMs easier to deal with.

Masatsune Yamaji, senior research analyst at Gartner, said the biggest buyer was the maker of expensive printer ink, HP. his was because it had succeeded in gaining market share in all PC market segments including desktop PCs, mobile PCs and mini-notebook PCs. HP also maintained a strong position in the printer, server and storage markets, though the total market size of servers and storage shrunk sharply in 2009.

Samsung was the second-largest demand for semiconductors in 2009. Nokia ranked third, after losing business worldwide, especially in the US.

Apple and Acer were the only electronic equipment manufacturers among the top ten companies to increase their semiconductor demand in 2009.

Acer succeeded not just in increasing its shipments of mini-notebook PCs, but also in gaining market share in the desktop PC and mobile PC markets.

Gartner's analysts said consumers were less interested in high performance last year and wanted more portability and affordability.

Then they knocked off for the day and went to an expensive bar in Boston for martinis. µ