Intel’s position as the undisputed market leader in the
semiconductor industry is being challenged by Samsung with recent reports (IHS
iSupply) showing the two with only 4.1 percentage point difference in market
share for 2010. Although both companies increased their sales significantly,
Samsung was above the industry average growing by 59.1% vs a 32.1% growth
overall for the entire semiconductor business. This strong performance by
Samsung is driven mostly by booming sales of memory integrated circuits which
is its main semiconductor product. Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) was the
biggest driver of growth for 2010 expanding by 75% while NAND flash memory also
grew by 38.6% for the year.
The unprecedented growth of Samsung started in 2001 when it
only had 3.9% market share growing to 9.2% in 2010. This represents a 355%
increase in revenue from 2001 to 2010 for Samsung. Intel’s performance meanwhile
has ranged between 11.9% and 14.8% market share during the same period.
A popular rival of Intel in the microprocessing unit (MPU)
market, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) also experienced a 21.9% growth on
the same period but its ranking slipped from eighth to twelfth place. With AMD
falling behind, the competition for overall semiconductor market share will be
closely watched between Samsung and Intel.
Forecasts for 2011
Projections for 2011 by market economists
continue to preach caution about a possible double dip recession. Adding to the
growing concern over economic instability are the continuing conflicts in the
Middle East resulting to higher oil prices and the unemployment problems in
most countries. These factors can affect the overall performance of the
semiconductor industry for the whole of 2011 although most companies are
optimistic that this year will be another strong year with the rise of
smartphones, tablets and netbooks.
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