Gartner Says Top 10 Original Equipment Manufacturers Accounted for $92 Billion of Semiconductors Purchased in 2008

STAMFORD, Conn. — The top 10 original equipment manufacturer (OEM) firms accounted for $91.6 billion of the semiconductor market in 2008, representing one-third of all semiconductor consumption, according to preliminary results from Gartner, Inc. This was a 3.8 percent decline from 2007. The leading applications remain PCs and mobile phones.

“For the electronics and semiconductor industries, 2008 started on a positive note but ended with a whimper as the global recession limited demand,” said Alfonso Velosa, research director at Gartner. “Despite this, given the overall unit shipment growth of most of the leading OEMs in 2008, the semiconductor consumption threshold to be in the top 10 was raised to $6.0 billion, $0.1 billion more than in 2007.”

HP remained the leading OEM for semiconductor consumption. It accounted for $16.5 billion in 2008 — a flat result compared with 2007. Despite a significant increase in unit shipments; this highlights the market’s changing product mix and the decline in semiconductor ASPs. As the top PC maker, HP was the leading consumer of microprocessors and memory semiconductors.

“HP and Nokia showed that manufacturers benefited from a significant decline in average selling prices,” Mr. Velosa said. “In addition, Nokia continued to shift its semiconductor-sourcing strategy away from designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for its handsets to using off-the-shelf application-specific standard products (ASSPs). Since Nokia is the world’s largest vendor of mobile phones, this shift will continue to have a major impact on the semiconductor market.”

“Apple again demonstrated how innovative use of technology and a keen understanding of consumer requirements can lead to strong growth in revenue and thus in semiconductor consumption,” Mr. Velosa said. “It jumped up to the No. 6 position, with $7 billion in semiconductor consumption for its branded products, driven by the strength of Apple’s mobile phones, computers and portable media players (PMPs). Its integration of sensors and focus on industrial design and the ‘user experience’ set an example that few OEMs have been able to emulate.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Semiconductor Consumption by Top 10 OEMs, Worldwide, 2008 (Preliminary).” This report provides preliminary rankings for the top 10 companies worldwide. The report is available on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=872714&subref=advsearch. Later this year, Gartner Dataquest will publish an analysis of the top 50 OEM semiconductor consumers by application for 2008. This report will contain an in-depth analysis of the major hardware category’s semiconductor supply chain, including analysis of semiconductor consumption by device category by OEM for hardware areas such as personal computers, cell phones, and more.

This research is produced by Gartner’s Semiconductors Worldwide group. This research group combines memory, microcomponents, logic, ASIC, analog, discrete device, RF and optical segments into a complete industry picture. Products, suppliers, startups, technologies, regional consumption, applications and emerging technologies are all covered in this broad program. To subscribe to this service, please contact Becky Tonnesen at 408-468-8287 or at becky.tonnesen@gartner.com.

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.