Intel leads strong semiconductor market growth

CHIPMAKER Intel dominated the worldwide semiconductor market in 2010, helping the market recover and achieve revenue growth of 24 per cent, according to IDC.

Intel brought in $41.9 billion last year, making it the market leader. The company's strong performance helped push revenue growth in the semiconductor market to $283 billion.

The company looks set to continue to lead the semiconductor market in 2011, having posted a 25 per cent revenue increase for the first quarter.

Samsung came in at second place with revenue of $27.6 billion, while Texas Instruments, Toshiba and Hynix filled out the remaining top five positions.

The top ten chip firms represented 51 per cent of the entire semiconductor market, a six per cent increase from the previous year.

A number of small to medium sized firms also saw strong growth in 2010, including Trident Microsystems, Spreadtrum Communications, Netlogic, Aptina, Seoul Semiconductor, ICERA, Cavium and Atheros.

Apple's semiconductor revenue growth with its A4 chips was one of the highest at 130 per cent. Its recent results for its second fiscal quarter of 2011 indicate that it's likely to see continuing growth in all sectors.

The Asia Pacific region, which has a 51 per cent market share, saw substantial growth of 30 per cent, primarily coming from China, while the Americas also saw strong growth of 48 per cent.

The consumer market performed poorly in general, but was rescued by the surge in smartphone and tablet sales, helping it secure growth of 13.3 per cent. That is likely to increase further in 2011 with the launch of a slew of Android tablets.

IDC expects revenue growth for 2011 to be somewhat lower than last year at between six and eight per cent, with the impact of the Japanese earthquake a contributing factor to the lower outlook. µ