Gartner analysts recently reported that worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $340.3 billion in 2014 – representing a 7.9 percent increase from 2013 revenue of $315.4 billion.
According to Gartner research VP Andrew Norwood, the top 25 semiconductor vendors’ combined revenue increased 11.7 percent, which was more than the overall industry’s growth. More specifically, the top 25 vendors accounted for 72.4 percent of total market revenue, up from 69.9 percent in 2013.
“2014 saw all device categories post positive growth, unlike in 2013, when application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), discretes and microcomponents all declined,” Norwood explained.
“The memory market was the best performer for the second year in a row, growing 16.6 percent, meaning the rest of the market only achieved 4.9 percent growth.”
As a group, says Norwood, DRAM vendors performed best, lifted by the booming DRAM market. Indeed, DRAM revenue increased 32 percent to $46.1 billion in 2014, surpassing the all-time high of $41.8 billion set in 1995.
Commenting on the above-mentioned report, Loren Shalinsky, a strategic development director at Rambus, says the memory market has experienced significant revenue swings in recent years.
“However, one constant is that DRAM is a critical component in the vast majority of electronics systems, being used in such diverse applications as smartphones, consumer applications like gaming systems and TVs, as well as datacenter and networking applications,” noted Shalinsky.
“The big three DRAM manufacturers are all part of the five largest semiconductor vendors. Although these vendors also make other semiconductor devices, DRAM accounts for more than two-thirds of their semiconductor revenue.”
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