Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Declined $29 Billion
The semiconductor industry will post a revenue decline for just the sixth time in the last 25 years, with worldwide revenue totaling $226 billion in 2009, an 11.4 percent decline from 2008, according to preliminary estimates by Gartner, Inc. However, 2009 still goes on record as one of the worst years for the semiconductor industry since the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2001 and the first year the semiconductor industry posted declines two years in a row. Worldwide semiconductor revenues declined 5.4 percent in 2008, a consequence of the worldwide economic recession, which began in the fourth quarter.
Only three of the top 10 semiconductor vendors saw revenue growth in 2009; two of them were memory manufacturers, Samsung and Hynix, whose revenue grew primarily because of the long-awaited firming of memory prices. Qualcomm grew slightly by capturing market share among cellular baseband processors. Outside of the top 10, but within the top 25, Taiwan’s MediaTek grew 21.4 percent, due its strong position among off-brand Chinese cell phone makers. It was the only company within the top 25 to show double-digit growth.
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