Samsung and Apple Continue to Lead as Top Global Semiconductor Customers in 2014: Gartner

BANGALORE: Samsung Electronics and Apple remained the top semiconductor buyers in 2014, representing their combined semiconductor demand by 17 percent, according to Gartner, Inc. Samsung Electronics and Apple together consumed $57.9 billion of semiconductors in 2014, an increase of $3.9 billion from 2013.

 "Samsung Electronics and Apple have topped the semiconductor consumption table for four consecutive years and their decisions have considerable technology and pricing implications for the whole semiconductor industry," said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner. "However, while Samsung Electronics kept its position as the No. 1 largest customer of semiconductor chip vendors, its growth rate in 2014 was lower than the global semiconductor market's growth, firstly because it struggled in the smartphone market, and secondly because it is withdrawing from some parts of the PC market."

 The top 10 companies bought $125.6 billion of semiconductors, to account for 37 percent of semiconductor chip vendors' worldwide revenue in 2014. This was up from $114.8 billion, accounting for 36.4 percent in 2013. The top 10 outperformed the semiconductor buying market and grew by 9.4 percent overall.

 As a result of the stabilization of memory prices from 2013, eight companies among the top 10 increased their semiconductor demand in 2014. All of the top 10 companies in the design total available market (TAM) ranking for 2013 remained in the top 10 in 2014, although a number exchanged places. Through mergers and acquisitions, fourth-place Lenovo significantly increased its semiconductor demand in 2014 with growth of 33.9 percent. With growth of 21.6 percent, Huawei climbed to No. 7 in 2014, up from No. 9 in 2013, while LG Electronics climbed to No. 9 in 2014, up from No. 10 in 2013, with growth of 15.9 percent.

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