Samsung Electronics¡¯ share of the global semiconductor market continued to skyrocket in Q2 -- its growth surpassing all other top 10 players in a market that experienced overall growth of 34.4 percent on a global basis over Q2 2003, according to iSuppli Corp.

Thanks to its leadership in the fast-growing DRAM and flash memory markets, Samsung sits in the number two overall chipmaker position, but also achieved the highest growth by far in Q2 -- an astounding 84.7 percent increase compared to Q2 2003, and nearly 38 percent higher than the next-fastest growing supplier in the top 10, Texas Instruments Inc.

Conversely, chip-making leader Intel Corp. posted the lowest growth among the top 10 semiconductor suppliers with a 20 percent increase in Q2. Although the company continues to try to drive higher growth by expanding beyond its core computing market, iSuppli said the company is facing some challenges.

The strong results from Samsung relative to Intel caused the market shares of the two companies to converge, with just 6.5 percentage points separating the two in Q2, compared to 9.8 percentage points in Q2 2003. While Intel remains solidly in control of the top spot, Samsung¡¯s strong growth boosted its revenue to more than half of Intel¡¯s for the first time, the firm reported.

TI also achieved impressive growth with a 46.8 percent increase in the June quarter over Q2 2003, which was notable given that the company does not participate in the fast-growing memory market, iSuppli said. Infineon Technologies AG received a boost from both its DRAM and wireless product lines and rose to the fifth seat in Q2, up from sixth place in the year-ago quarter.

Companies that supply memories and chips for wireless products reported some of the strongest growth among the top 20 semiconductor providers with these segments driving revenue increases for nine out of the top 10 fastest growing companies among the top 20. TI, Infineon, Freescale, Philips and Qualcomm benefited from surging sales of semiconductors for wireless applications, allowing them to achieve growth ranging from 36.3 percent to 46.8 percent. Also, Analog Devices Inc. broke into the top 20 rankings due to its success in the wireless and analog chip markets.

Thanks again to the strength of the DRAM and flash markets, Samsung, Infineon, Hynix Semiconductor Inc., AMD/Spansion and Micron Technology Inc. all grew by more than 40 percent between Q2 2003 and Q2.

Hynix mounted an impressive comeback in the DRAM business, posting the strongest performance among the top 20 chip suppliers with triple-digit revenue growth of nearly 104 percent and rising to 11th place in the Q2 rankings, up from 16th place in Q2 2003.

By: DocMemory
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