SK Hynix and Mediatek are expected to be among the big chip winners in 2013, according to a forecast by IC Insights. Preliminary figures show the two companies leading the field in revenue growth at 44 and 34 percent to push into the top five and 20, respectively.

"Despite a significant fire and production set-back at its largest memory fab in China, SK Hynix is taking full advantage of the surge in the DRAM market this year and is expected to move up three places," the market watcher said in a research bulletin.

Mediatek is expected to rank 16, up from 22 in last year's list, with smartphone application processor shipments nearly doubling to 200 million up from 108 million last year. The company "is experiencing extremely strong demand for its devices in the booming low-end smartphone business in China and other Asia-Pacific locations."

The Taiwan chip vendor still distantly trails mobile market leader Qualcomm, which reported Wednesday annual sales of a whopping 716 million chips, up 21 percent from its previous year. It logged revenues of $24.87 billion, up 30 percent over the prior fiscal year, with net income up 22 percent to 7.91 billion.

Despite its heady results, Qualcomm issued mild guidance, expecting revenues up no more than 11 percent in its coming fiscal year. Longer term, "we expect double-digit compound annual growth rates for both revenues and earnings per share over the next five years," said Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs in a press statement.

Among other winners in the IC Insights forecast, Broadcom is expected to edge into the top 10 for the first time on modest 4 percent sales growth. For its part, Micron is forecast to move up two spots to number eight, spurred by its acquisition of Elpida.

Japan's Fujitsu, Renesas, and Sony are expected to be the big losers in 2013.

Fujitsu is expected to drop five places to fall out of the top 20 ranking this year after selling its analog and microcontroller business to Spansion in April. Renesas is expected to fall from seventh to eleventh place as annual sales fell 16 percent, the biggest drop in the top 25. Sony's revenues dropped nearly as much, 14 percent.

The yen-to-dollar conversion hurt all the Japanese vendors. "Using a constant 2012 U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate for 2013, the forecasted 2013 semiconductor sales of Sony, Fujitsu, and Renesas would actually increase by 4, 3, and 2, respectively," said IC Insights.

By: DocMemory
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