Preliminary figures compiled by IHS iSuppli show that though the economic climate remains frosty, 2011 has been a bumper year for semiconductor shipments – driven mainly by increasing consumer demand for smartphones and tablet PCs, as well as increasing use of solid state lighting and growing interest in renewable energy. Total chip sales this year look like they will reach the $312 billion mark, just short of the total that the analyst firm had predicted half way through the year. This is up 2% on 2010 and 37% on the 2009 nadir. However, it was not all good news – with the three major IDMs here in Europe (namely STMicroelectronics, Infineon and NXP) each seeing their revenues drop by a few percentage points. 

The biggest winner has been Californian based microprocessor giant Intel. It managed to outgrow the industry as a whole and raise its market share to nearly 16%. It has also managed to pull away from second placed chip manufacturer, Korea’s Samsung, after several years of seeing its lead eroded. The third and fourth placed manufacturers swapped their positions, with Dallas-based Texas Instruments, thanks to its acquisition of National Semiconductor, edging ahead of Toshiba Semiconductor. The highest climber during this period is ON Semiconductor, jumping seven places up to 19th in the rankings. The Phoenix-based power semiconductor company has nearly doubled its revenue after buying up Sanyo Semiconductor.

Pinnacle Marketing works with three of the world’s top 20 semiconductor suppliers, providing multi-region services ranging from PR to search engine optimisation.

The complete list of top 20 suppliers is as follows:

Rank 2011 Rank 2010 Company Key Products Revenue (Billion $) Percentage Change
1 1 Intel Microprocessors 40.4 +23%
2 2 Samsung Memories 29.2 +3%
3 4 Texas Instruments DSPs, Comms ICs 13.0 +8%
4 3 Toshiba Microcontrollers, Memories 11.1 +3%
5 5 Renesas Microcontrollers 10.1 -6%
6 9 Qualcomm Comms ICs 9.8 +40%
7 7 STMicroelectronics Analogue ICs, Power ICs 8.9 -5%
8 6 Hynix Memories 7.3 -14%
9 8 Micron Technology Memories 7.1 -17%
10 10 Broadcom Comms ICs 6.5 +7%
11 12 AMD Microprocessors 5.4 +2%
12 13 Infineon Power ICs, Automotive ICs 5.2 -14%
13 14 Sony Optoelectronics 4.5 -1%
14 16 Freescale Microcontrollers, Automotive ICs 3.9 +2.5%
15 11 Elpida Memory Memories 3.9 -40%
16 17 NXP Semiconductors Analogue ICs, Power ICs, Identification ICs 3.8 -5%
17 20 Nvidia Graphic Processors 3.7 +15%
18 18 Marvell Comms ICs 3.5 -4%
19 26 ON Semiconductor Power ICs 3.4 +49%
20 15 Panasonic Discretes, Optoelectronics 3.4 -32%