Intel was the top chip company in 2011 for the 20th successive year, said Gartner, with $51bn of revenues representing a 16.9% share of a world market that grew 0.9% to $302bn.
Gartner’s Top 7 for 2011.
Intel
Samsung
TI
Toshiba
Renesas
Qualcomm
ST
Second-placed Samsung was more than $20bn behind with revenues of $29bn. Samsung's non-memory business grew most, particularly wireless applications processors. The strongest growth came from Samsung's relationship with Apple, where it is supplying the A5 processor used in iPhones and iPads.
TI, at No.3, has the strongest manufacturing position in analogue, but analogue demand fell off in Q3 and Q4, said Gartner.
Gartner attributed the low growth of the market to macroeconomic factors.
"Consumers held off purchases, and infrastructure expansion plans languished as governments resisted assuming more debt," said Gartner’s Stephan Ohr, "equipment inventories began to build up as the year progressed, with resulting ripples throughout semiconductor industry."
For 2012, Gartner is forecasting industry revenues of $309bn.