Samsung Electronics and Apple remained the top two semiconductor chip buyers in 2016, representing 18.2% of the total worldwide market, a Gartner study said Friday.
Samsung and Apple together consumed $61.7 billion of semiconductors in 2016, an increase of $0.4 billion from 2015.
"This is the sixth consecutive year that Samsung Electronics and Apple have topped the semiconductor consumption table," said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner.
"While both companies continue to exert considerable influence on technology and price trends for the wider semiconductor industry, their impact has lessened due to falling expectations for future growth," Yamaji added.
Although Samsung Electronics experienced intense competition from Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in various markets including smartphones, LCD TV and LCD panel through 2016, the company increased its design total available market (TAM) and came back as the global top design TAM company in 2016 with 9.3 percent share, the report stated.
The report said that since Gartner has been observing design TAM since 2007, Apple decreased its design TAM in 2016 for the first time ending the year with 8.8% share of the market. The study found that iPad did not sell well through 2016 and Apple also lost market share in the PC market.
The study also suggested that the top 10 companies by semiconductor design TAM, worldwide, in 2016 for the first time consists of three Chinese companies that have ranked in the top 10, showing that even with the slowing macroeconomic situation in China, the importance of the Chinese electronics market is increasing. The list further consisted of four US, two South Korean and a Japanese company.
The report added that BBK Electronics grew very fast in 2016 and increased its design TAM, but this fast growth also reflects how volatile businesses in China can be. "Technology product marketing leaders at semiconductor chip vendors need to take the risks of their major customers into account, and always try to diversify their customer base," Yamaji said.
“Even though the influence on the semiconductor industry of the top two strongest OEMs is weakening, the combined design TAM of the top 10 companies outperformed the average growth rate of the total semiconductor market in 2016,” said Yamaji. “However, semiconductor chip vendors can no longer secure their businesses by relying on a few strong customers because market share changes much faster these days," he added.
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