Representing 19.5 percent of the total worldwide market, Samsung and Apple
have retained their leadership as the top two semiconductor chip buyers
in 2017, market research firm Gartner said on Thursday. The firm
reports that Samsung and Apple together consumed semiconductors worth
$81.8 billion in 2017, showing an
increase of more than $20 billion from
2016.
Samsung grew its semiconductor spending by 37.2 percent and
spent whopping $43.1 billion in
2017. Apple's semiconductor spending, on the other hand, increased by
27.5 percent and reached $38.7 billion .
Interestingly, both the companies are holding the top position since
2011. "Samsung Electronics and Apple not only retained their respective
No. 1 and No. 2 positions, they also radically increased their share of
semiconductor spending through 2017," said Masatsune Yamaji, principal
research analyst at Gartner.
In addition to the continuous growth
of Samsung and Apple, the preliminary rankings revealed by Gartner
highlights eight of top 10 semiconductor buyers in 2016 remained in the
top 10 list in 2017, with the top five chip buyers remaining in the same
position. LG Electronics made a comeback to the top 10 list and was
joined by Western Digital, which grew its semiconductor spending by $1.7
billion . Also, China's BBK
Electronics, the parent company of OnePlus, Oppo, and Vivo, rose one
place to the sixth position with increasing its semiconductor spending
by $5.7 billion .
Gartner points out a
significant price increase of DRAM and NAND flash memory had majorly
influenced the total semiconductor buyers' ranking in 2017. Similarly,
supply shortages, mainly for memory IC, microcontrollers, and passive
components, benefited the suppliers but troubled the OEMs, the firm
said. The increase in OEMs' captive chip spending that is aimed to add
distinctions in their models reportedly brought a great risk for
commercial chip vendors. Companies, including Huawei and Samsung,
brought their own silicon solutions that reduced the demand for chips
developed by Qualcomm and MediaTek.
The share of semiconductor
spending by the top 10 OEMs reached 40 percent of the total
semiconductor market in 2017, up from 31 percent 10 years ago. Gartner
predicts that this trend will continue and by 2021, the top 10 OEMs will
account for more than 45 percent of global semiconductor spending.
With
the top 10 semiconductor chip buyers commanding an increasing share of
the market, technology product marketing leaders at chip vendors must
focus on their leading customers. They will need to prioritise direct
sales and technical support resources to these top customers by
exploiting online technical support capabilities and outsourcing the
support for long-tail customers to third-party partners and
distributors," said Mr. Yamaji.
Earlier this month, Gartner reported that Samsung had replaced Intel and became the top player in the global semiconductor market
in 2017 with a share of 14.6 percent. The prime reason for the growth
of the South Korean company in the market for semiconductors was found
to be the increased prices of NAND flash and DRAM chips. "NAND flash
prices increased year over year for the first time ever, up 17 percent,
while DRAM prices rose 44 percent," the Gartner report had said.
