Intel continued to dominate the global semiconductor market in 2011, achieving its highest market share in 13 years and topping the table for the 20th year in succession, Gartner figures show.
The chip giant grabbed a 16.5% share of the market in 2011, its highest share since 1998, after growing revenue 20.7% year-on-year to $50.6 billion (€38.4 billion). The firm’s latest market share is almost double the 8.9% achieved by second-placed Samsung, and a little over four times higher than Toshiba in third.
However, Gartner points out that market share stats alone don’t give a true representation of overall vendor strength because the figures can be skewed by growth in sales of particular devices. As a result, the firm analyses the difference between a firm’s industry-specific growth and actual growth – an exercise that pitches Qualcomm, Hynix and Infineon as market leaders, and Panasonic, Elpida Memory and MediaTek as underperformers.
Overall revenue growth was slow in 2011, growing 1.8% year-on-year to $306.8 billion. The top 25 manufacturers enjoyed above-average growth of 3.1% and generated 69.2% of total revenues in 2011, compared to 68.3% in 2010.